Christopher_Jackson_(geologist)

Christopher Jackson (geologist)

Christopher Jackson (geologist)

UK academic and geologist

Christopher Aiden-Lee Jackson (born 1977) is a British geoscientist, science communicator and Director of Sustainable Geoscience at Jacobs Engineering Group. He was previously Professor of Sustainable Geoscience at the University of Manchester, and before that held the Equinor Chair of Basin Analysis at Imperial College, London. He is known for his work in geoscience, especially in the use of 3D seismic data to understand dynamic processes in sedimentary basins.[1][2]

Quick Facts Professor, Born ...

Education

Christopher Jackson was born in Derby in the East Midlands. He attended Wilmorton Primary School and Noel Baker Community school. Jackson completed a BSc in Geology at the University of Manchester in 1998.[3] He stayed on at the University of Manchester to undertake a PhD in the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins with Rob Gawthorpe, completing in 2002.[4]

Research and career

Jackson's research focuses on the geodynamic, structural, and stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins. He has been described by the Geological Society of London as the "leading and most productive interpreter of three-dimensional seismic reflection data of his generation."[5] After completing his PhD in 2002, he was an exploration research geologist in the Norsk Hydro research center, Bergen.[6]

In 2004, Jackson joined Imperial College London as a lecturer in Basin Analysis in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, where he was appointed Statoil Professor of Basin Analysis in 2015.[6] In 2014, he joined the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting scientist.[7] Between 2015 and 2016 he was a Visiting Lecturer in Petroleum Science at the University of Namibia.[7] He was promoted to Equinor Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College in 2018. In 2019, he was the H. Burr Steinbach Visiting Scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Part of the open access movement within academia, Jackson founded EarthArxiv, a free preprint service for the earth sciences.[8][9][10]

In a 2017 interview with the Guardian newspaper, Jackson stated that he knew of "no other black, full-time, Earth science academic in the UK – or in fact, Europe or the US."[11] Jackson is on the editorial board of the Journal of Petroleum Geology.[12] He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.[7] Jackson delivered the closing of the 2015 Geological Society of London lecture series, "Terra Infirma: What has salt tectonics ever done for us?"[13][14][15]

In 2020 he was appointed to the Chair in Sustainable Geoscience at the University of Manchester, taking up the post in early 2021.[16][17] In March 2022, Jackson announced on Twitter that he was leaving the University of Manchester to work for the scientific consulting firm Jacobs Engineering Group. According to an interview with Nature, Jackson "received what was, in his opinion, a racially insensitive e-mail that constituted harassment and alluded to using social media to police staff opinions, which, he says, was the last straw". He filed a formal complaint with the university.[18]

Broadcasting

Jackson is a popular science communicator and has delivered scientific talks at several major festivals.[19][20]

Television

In 2017 Jackson joined a team of scientists and adventurers, including Xand Van Tulleken, to take part in an expedition to volcanoes.[21] The two-part BBC documentary Expedition Volcano involved the scientists studying Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira, two of the world's most dangerous volcanoes in the Congo.[22][23]

In 2020 Jackson jointly presented the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on British television, thus becoming the first black scientist to do so.[24][25] After it was announced that he was to be one of the lecturers, Jackson was the subject of racist abuse online, including being sent a clip on Twitter of a black person being beaten.[26] He also received letters telling him to "go live in the Caribbean” and stating "blacks like you are a total disgrace". Jackson reported the abuse to the police.[27]

Additionally, Jackson has appeared on The Great British Menu, and a series of earth science documentaries for Nova.[28]

Radio and podcasts

He has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programmes The Life Scientific[29] and The Infinite Monkey Cage,[30] as well as The Graham Norton Show[31] He has presented his own podcast, A Grown Up Guide to Planet Earth,[32][33] which was hosted on Audible.

Awards

References

  1. [1]
    "Home - Professor Christopher Jackson". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  2. [2]
    "Christopher Jackson". Research Explorer The University of Manchester. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  3. [3]
    "Home - Professor Christopher Jackson". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  4. [4]
    "Dr Christopher Jackson | Carbonate Research". www.carbonateresearch.com. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  5. [5]
    "The Geological Society of London - 2013 Awards Citations replies". www.geolsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  6. [6]
    "Christopher A-L. Jackson - AAPG 2012-13 Distinguished Lecturer". archives.aapg.org. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  7. [7]
    "Honours and Memberships - Professor Christopher Jackson". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  8. [8]
    "FORCE2017 - Invited speakers". www.force2017.org. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  9. [9]
    "The Center for Open Science and EarthArXiv Launch Branded Preprint Service". Center for Open Science (COS). Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  10. [10]
    "EarthArXiv wants your preprints". Agile. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  11. [11]
    Panciroli, Elsa (2017-08-16). "Does Palaeontology have an image problem? | Elsa Panciroli". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  12. [12]
    "Journal of Petroleum Geology - Editorial Board - Wiley Online Library". Journal of Petroleum Geology. doi:10.1111/(ISSN)1747-5457.
  13. [13]
    "Terra Infirma: What has salt tectonics ever done for us?". Geological Society of London blog. 2015-02-06. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  14. [14]
    GeologicalSociety (2014-02-05), LUSI: the Geology and Engineering of a Mud Volcano Disaster in Java, retrieved 2017-12-15
  15. [15]
    "The Geological Society of London - Terra Infirma; What Has Salt Tectonics Ever Done For Us". www.geolsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  16. [16]
    "Chris Jackson appointed as Chair in Sustainable Geoscience". University of Manchester. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  17. [17]
    "Prof Christopher Jackson". University of Manchester. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  18. [18]
    Gewin, Virginia (31 May 2022). "Has the 'great resignation' hit academia?". Nature. 606 (7912): 211–213. Bibcode:2022Natur.606..211G. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01512-6. PMID 35641675. S2CID 249233527.
  19. [19]
    "Christopher Jackson". New Scientist Live 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  20. [20]
    "Bluedot 2022 lineup announced". BBC Sky at Night Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  21. [21]
    "Expedition Volcano - BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  22. [22]
    Expedition Volcano - Series 1: Episode 1, retrieved 2017-12-15
  23. [23]
    "Episode 2, Series 1, Expedition Volcano - BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  24. [24]
    Davis, Nicola (22 August 2020). "'I'm up for the fight': Chris Jackson to be first black scientist to give Christmas lecture". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  25. [25]
    "Q&A: Christmas Lecturer talks geoscience, climate change, and diversity | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  26. [26]
    Blakely, Rhys (5 September 2020). "Black scientist reports racial abuse to police after lecture honour". The Times. p. 37.
  27. [27]
    Wootton-Cane, Nicole (30 November 2021). "'Go live in the Caribbean': Manchester University lecturer speaks out after receiving racist letters". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  28. [28]
    "Chris Jackson". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  29. [29]
    "BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Chris Jackson on sustainable geology". BBC.
  30. [30]
    "BBC Radio 4, The Infinite Monkey Cage, A history of Rock". BBC.
  31. [31]
    "BBC Radio 2 - Graham Norton, With Alan Davies, Tahar Rahim, Prof. Chris Jackson". BBC. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  32. [32]
    Audible.com | Try Audible Free Today.
  33. [33]
    'A Grown-Up Guide to Planet Earth': A podcast from Professor Christopher Jackson, retrieved 2022-09-09
  34. [34]
    "The Geological Society of London - The Major John Sacheverell A'Deane Coke and Major Edward D'Ewes Fitzgerald Coke Medals". www.geolsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  35. [35]
    "Geosciences in the Media Award". www.aapg.org. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
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    "Fellowship - Newly-Elected Fellows". www.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  37. [37]
    "Seismic societal engagement activity recognised in the 2020 President's Awards | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  38. [38]
    "SEPM - Best Journal Paper Award (2004 - present)". www.sepm.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  39. [39]
    "Exceptional Reviewers - 2019". www.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  40. [40]
    "Carlos Walter M. Campos Memorial Award (Best International Student Paper)". www.aapg.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  41. [41]
    Inc., Advanced Solutions International. "GSA International". www.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2017-12-15. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  42. [42]
    "AAPG Paper Awards". www.aapg.org. Archived from the original on 2015-07-11. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  43. [43]
    "British Sedimentological Research Group 51st Annual General Meeting" (PDF). BSRG. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  44. [44]
    "Chris Jackson | Bureau of Economic Geology". www.beg.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  45. [45]
    "AAPG Datapages/Archives" (PDF). archives.datapages.com. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  46. [46]
    "Editorial board - Basin Research". br.eage.org. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  47. [47]
    "BSRG - Awards recognising a body of Sedimentological Research". www.bsrg.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
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