Alfred Traverse first encountered palynology, then a smaller subject called a ~pollen analysisa (TM), in courses at Cambridge University under Harry Godwin and others, in 1946-47. At Harvard University he did a Ph. D. dissertation with E. S. Barghoorn on a mid-Cenozoic palynoflora, it was in 1951 the first doctoral dissertation on paleopalynology in the USA. He then worked as a coal technologist and palynologist for the U.S. Bureau of Mines and Shell Oil Company, 1951-1965, and became Assistant Professor of Palynology at Pennsylvania State University, 1966-92. He was guest professor of palynol...