What do you do?
I am an aging geologist having spent forty four years doing research in structural geology and tectonics mainly in the field in Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Newfoundland, Switzerland, Tibet, New Zealand, Peru, Bolivia, South Africa, Vermont, and California. I study what happens at plate boundaries where tectonics plates diverge, converge and slide past each other, especially how the Earth's crust is squashed, sheared and is pulled apart to form mountain belts and their collapsed remnants. My goal is to relate the detailed structure of extant and extinct plate boundary zones to present and past relative plate motion. I am especially interested in rock fabric evolution and block rotation and deformation in transtension (oblique extension) and transpression (oblique shortening).

Why should the general public be interested in what you do?
I work in fundamental questions of rock behavior under varying pressures and temperature conditions; this basic research contributes to an understanding of geo-hazards, such as earthquakes and landslides.

Why does it interest you?
Over a period of 40 years of research, I have become more and more excited about finding out how the Earth works. For each question answered, five new problems emerge. Research is the most interesting thing that a scholar can do. Also research makes me a better teacher.

What major advances/discoveries have occurred in your research field over the last 10 years?
I worked out a scheme for understanding sea level changes over long and short periods of time. I discovered how oblique convergence 420 million years ago in western Ireland and oblique divergence 400 million years ago in Norway explain rock structures and fabrics.