John Alexander Dunn specialized in geology en route to his DSc (1926), University of Melbourne, Australia. His diverse career ranged from being the Mineral Economist, Government of Australia; Superintending Geologist (1938-44), Director (1945-46), Geological Survey of India to being appointed as the Curator of the Indian Museum (1929-31) and Petrologist (1935-38).

Academic and Research Achievements: Dunn worked on the mineral resources of Singhbhum district and made detailed studies of the copper deposits of Mosaboni, Rakha Mines, Tamapahar and Bedia-Surda areas and the uranium bearing rocks of Judugara and adjacent areas publishing two memoirs. He published another memoir on the rynite, sillimanite and corundum deposits of Assam. He classified the commercial grades of mica and their occurrences in the Indian pegmative veins of Kodarma, Rajasthan and Nellore. Studied the complex techniques of ore microscopy and undertook intensive studies of the ore- microscopic characters of the manganese-oxide minerals, particularly Hollandite, Vredenburgite, etc. and published the results in Transactions of the National Institute of Sciences of India which is considered as valuable scientific information on the microscopic character of opaque minerals of India.

Other Contributions: Dunn served as the author and editor of the International Journal of Economic Geology.

Awards and Honours: John Alexander received the Prizes announced by the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India. He was an Honorary Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy; a Fellow at the Geological Society of London; President (1943) of the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India and Vice-President (1938-41, 1943) of the Society of Economic Geologists. He was also elected the President of the Geology and Geography Section, Indian Science Congress in 1943.