Heather Nicholson (left) and Jocelyn Campbell (right) were two of the first women geologists to undertake projects involving extensive field work. They are pictured at the 2005 annual meeting of the Geological Society of New Zealand.

Heather Nicholson (née Halcrow) studied geology at Auckland University College. She produced a geological map of Waiheke Island, near Auckland, for her MSc thesis in 1953. This involved many weeks of field work. No jobs were available for women in geology in those days, so she worked as a science teacher. On retirement she returned to the University of Auckland and completed a PhD on New Zealand greywackes in 2003 – 50 years after completing her master’s degree.

Jocelyn Campbell (née Adamson) studied a rugged, bush-covered area, crossed by the Alpine Fault, near Lake Rotoiti for her MSc thesis in 1964. As a lecturer at the University of Canterbury she has trained a generation of structural geologists and undertaken research into deformation across the plate boundary through New Zealand.