Michael Selby

Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, on 13 January 1936,[1] Selby studied at Keble College, Oxford, gaining a BA(Hons), MA, and DipEd.[2][3]

Selby came to New Zealand on the RMS Rangitata in 1960,[4] and was appointed as a junior lecturer at the Waikato branch of the University of Auckland.[5] On the establishment of the University of Waikato in 1964, he joined the new Department of Geography, and then the Department of Earth Sciences when it was formed in 1970.[6][7] The following year, he completed a DPhil: the title of his doctoral thesis was Runoff, infiltration and soil erodibility studies in the Otutira catchment.[8] He was later awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Oxford on the basis of his research linking concepts in geomorphology with quantitative measurements in engineering geology.[7]

Selby took part in either three[9] or four[7] field expeditions to Antarctica, including in 1968–69, 1971–72, and 1978–79.[9] On the first of these, he became the first geomorphologist to travel to Antarctica.[10] The 1978–79 trip to the Britannia Range–Darwin Glacier region was led by Selby, and mapped exposures in the McCraw Glacier area, and discovered iron meteorites on Derrick Peak.[6] Selby also made expeditions to the Sahara, Namib, and Atacama Deserts, as well as to the Himalayas and Colorado.[7] He also visited the Eastern Mediterranean after developing a research interest in archaeology and human evolution and dispersion.[7] In 1980, Selby was appointed as a professor of earth sciences at Waikato.[5] During his academic career, he wrote six books and more than 80 refereed scientific papers.[7]

In the later part of his career, Selby was part of the senior administrative team at Waikato, and served as deputy vice-chancellor (research).[5][7] He took part in the Treaty of Waitangi negotiations with Waikato Tainui relating to the ownership of the university campus.[7] On his retirement from Waikato in 2002, Selby was granted the title of emeritus professor.[3][5] He continued to serve the university as chair of the University of Waikato Foundation and as a director of companies commercialising research at the university.[5]

Selby became a naturalised New Zealander in 1980.[1] He died on 21 January 2018.[11]

In the 2005 New Year Honours, Selby was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to education.[12]

A peak in the Britannia Range in Antarctica was named Mount Selby, in honour of Selby, by the New Zealand Antarctic Placenames Committee.[6][9]

• Selby, Michael (1967). The surface of the Earth (2 volumes). London: Cassell.
• Selby, Michael (1982). Hillslope materials and processes. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019874126X.
• Selby, Michael (1985). Earth's changing surface: an introduction to geomorphology. Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN 0198232527.