The Museum of Mineralogy was formally established at the Department of Geological Sciences in 1971, and later renamed in honor of Professor (now Emeritus) Robert Bury Ferguson. Professor Ferguson was instrumental to the establishment of the Museum, and led the mineralogical and crystallographic research at our Department through three decades of rapid growth to its present level of excellence recognized far beyond Canada's borders.

Bob Ferguson joined the U of M professoriate in 1947, fresh from his Ph.D. program at the University of Toronto, where he had worked on the mineralogy and crystallography of muscovite and fluoride minerals under Professor Martin A. Peacock. That year, the Department's staff grew from just two (Ed Leith and George Brownell) to five full-time members. Bob Ferguson was hired to teach mineralogy and crystallography, and to manage the newly acquired X-ray diffraction facility. In addition to introductory courses, Bob subsequently developed advanced-level courses in X-ray crystallography and crystal chemistry. Because the post-war enrolment at the U of M was going through the roof (an influx of 3,125 veterans in 1946 increased the registration by almost 50%), Bob and his colleagues had to improvise to maintain the high standards of teaching despite the shortage of teaching materials and classroom space. For example, in 1947-1948, Bob and George Brownell set up a lathe and procedure which enabled a technician to cut hundreds of "home-made" (but geometrically precise!) wooden models of crystals, which were then used in the introductory crystallography course.

In his long teaching career at the U of M (1947-1985), Bob "raised" a countless number of students and mentored many young scientists who went on to become university professors and accomplished researchers known far beyond Canada's borders. It is sufficient to say that six (!) of Bob's former students and postdoctoral fellows were honored by having minerals named after them: bobtraillite (R.J. Traill, Ph.D. 1956), trembathite (L.T. Trembath, M.Sc. 1961), gaitite (R.I. Gait, Ph.D. 1967), černưite (P. Černư, PDF 1969), griceite (J. Grice, M.Sc. 1970, Ph.D. 1973) and frankhawthorneite (F.C. Hawthorne, PDF 1973).

Throughout his career, Bob Ferguson actively promoted the value of hands-on research experience in training and strove to bring the analytical arsenal available at the Department up to internationally competitive levels and to raise students' interest in lab research. This collaborative work often overstepped the boundaries of student theses, producing publications of lasting significance. Some of the Manitoba localities studied by Professor Ferguson, his students and colleagues are shown on this map. The breadth of Bob's research interests is impressive and spans from his groundbreaking work on Al-Si ordering in feldspars to structural analysis of metallic alloys and organometallic compounds. His career path is marked by many prestigious awards and recognitions, including: Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada (1961), Presidency of the Mineralogical Association of Canada (1977), and the Hawley Medal for the best paper published in the Canadian Mineralogist in 1980.

Professor Emeritus Ferguson is one of very few individuals who have had both a new mineral species and a museum named after them. Other outstanding scientists recognized in the same fashion were James Smithson of England (1765-1829) and Alexander Fersman of Russia (1883-1945).

The mineral bobfergusonite is a rare Na-Mn-Fe-Al phosphate which was discovered in a granitic pegmatite at Cross Lake, central Manitoba by Scott Ercit, Alan Anderson, Petr Černý and Frank Hawthorne (Canadian Mineralogist, 24, 599-614). More recently, it was also found in the Conlara pegmatite field in central Argentina (Tait et al., Canadian Mineralogist, 42, 705-716).

Kim Tait also scrutinized the crystal structure of this mineral, which was part of her M.Sc. project completed at our Department. Bobfergusonite is an acknowledgement of Bob's contribution to the mineralogy of pegmatites, which began with his master's thesis on muscovite from the Mattawan Township in Ontario.