KALEVI KAURANNE (1927-2011)

Prof. Leevi Kalevi Kauranne (24th July 1927-12th July 2011) was a distinguished Finnish geologist and in the frontier of the geochemical exploration. In the beginning of his career, during 1950s, the focus of his research was in developing till geochemical exploration, new innovative method in glaciated terrains. He started his geochemistry research by studying the mineral dispersion, geochemistry and composition of till in the Outokumpu area. In 1970, his doctoral thesis dealt with the problems concerning the durability of stone materials used in road construction.

At the Outokumpu mine, he started as a research assistant and finally worked as a mine geologist (1949-1950). In 1952, he got a position at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). After that he worked as a geologist and the head of the central laboratory in the National Board of Roads and Waterways (1960-1967), and an assistant professor at the Tampere Technical University. An important advance in his career happened in 1973, when he started to work as head of the new geochemistry department at GTK (1973-1978). Since then he was the research director (1978-1979) and finally general director (1980-1991) of GTK before retiring in 1991.

Prof. Kauranne worked in several countries: in 1954 and 1958 as geochemist in Norway, in 1963 representative of the United Nations in Togo and in 1983 representative of the Asian Bank on the Philippines. He was active in many international societies; a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, a member of the Board of International Geological Correlation Programme at UNESCO/IUGS, an honorary member of the Finnish Geological Engineering Society and the Estonian Geological Society, and an honorary doctor of Uppsala University. He had also many confidential posts in scientific societies in Finland.

Kauranne was an author of about 150 research papers and reports, and an editor of several scientific publications. He was one of the editors of a text-book on engineering geology and the handbook of exploration geochemistry; Regolith Exploration Geochemistry in Arctic and Temperate Terrains published by Elsevier. His papers and publications are still commonly cited in modern scientific papers.

Prof. Kauranne was awarded in 1991 by the Oskari Vilamo Foundation (engineering) and in 2011 by the Eero Mäkinen bronze medal to honor his contribution to the Finnish exploration and mining industry.