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Career in outline

I received a BA (in Geology) from Oxford University in 1975; for my PhD I moved to Manchester University, where I began my career in experimental petrology, studying under Prof. Bernie Wood, FRS, from 1975 to 1978. I worked on developing a garnet-olivine geothermometer for upper mantle xenoliths, and determined the position of the phase transition that occurs in the upper mantle between spinel peridotite and garnet peridotite. I then took up a post-doctoral position at Arizona State University in Prof. Alex Navrotsky’s laboratory, where I tried to use high-temperature solution calorimetry to measure the heats of formation of iron-bearing minerals and solid solutions. This led to my interest in spinels and spinel solid solutions, beginning also my work in thermochemical modelling.

In 1981 I moved to Australia to take up a Research Fellowship at the Research School of Earth Science (RSES), ANU, in Prof. Ted Ringwood’s group, where I became interested in using solid-state electrolytes to measure the Gibbs free energies of oxidation-reduction reactions electrochemically at high temperatures. This led in turn to my interest in redox reactions in planetary mantles, thence core formation in the Earth, Moon and other planetary bodies, and on to the origin of the Earth/Moon system. Following a year in industry in which I built a small research laboratory to apply my experimental skills to the better understanding of lead-zinc slags, I became a founding member of the new Bayerisches Geoinstitut für Experimentelle Geochemie und Geophysik at the University of Bayreuth, Germany in 1987. At Bayreuth I built a laboratory for high-temperature studies, initially specializing in the electrochemical techniques that I had developed at the ANU, but before long I was also back doing high-pressure work, mainly connected with understanding the redox state of the deep mantle and core formation in the Earth. I also entered a rather different field of research, using newly developed powder X-ray diffraction methods to study order-disorder in spinels and other minerals; this interest has evolved into using neutron diffraction for similar studies.

In 1994 I returned to the ANU as a Senior Fellow, becoming leader of the Experimental Petrology Group in 1997, was promoted to Professor with effect from 1/1/2004, Associate Director in charge of the Earth Materials and Processes Area from 1/1/2006, and Professor level E2 on 5/2/2009. As the leader of the Earth Materials group at RSES I oversee what is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost research groups in the world concerned with the experimental investigation of deep Earth petrology, from the crust to the core. My recent research has led off in several new directions, including the application of X-ray spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation in conjunction with experimental petrology, and in extending the pressure range of apparatus to bring within experimental reach a number of new problems concerning mantle petrology.

I have shared my enthusiasm for scientific research in general and experimental petrology in particular with twelve PhD students, of which several have successfully launched their own academic careers in experimental petrology (Dr Werner Ertel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Prof. Stephan Klemme, Universität Münster; Dr Paul Hoskin, University of Auckland; Professor Xi Liu, Peking University). A recent student, Dr Istvan Kovacs, has just won a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship in his home country of Hungary.

I was awarded a Forschungspreis by the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung in 2000, which has enabled me to return to Germany three times for collaborative visits. I was presented with the Schlumberger medal of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 2003, the Bunsen Medal of the European Union of Geosciences in 2007, and the Bowen medal of the American Geophysical Union also in 2007. I was elected a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America in 2006, of the Geochemical Society in 2007, and became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2008.