2011-12 Tour Information
Eastern North America:
October 17-28, 2011
Western North America:
March 19-30, 2012
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Rod Graham
Research Associate, Cambridge
Like many other geologists Rod Graham was attracted to geology by a love of mountain walking, and an inspirational school teacher. He studied Geology in the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, graduated with first class honours and went on to do a PhD at Imperial College, London on the Precambrian basement rocks of the Western Isles of Scotland. After two years of post doctoral work on geological strain in crystalline rocks he took up a lectureship in structural geology at the University of Wales at Swansea and his research interest shifted first to the Precambrian rocks of Africa, then to the structure and evolution of the French Alps.
During this time the geometrical ideas of 'thin-skin tectonics' were taking hold of the structural geology community. They were highly relevant (and new) in Alpine geology, but, more significantly, were proving important in hydrocarbon exploration, and so, after thirteen years at Swansea, Rod left academia and joined BP in a structural consulting role which was to enable him to see the geology of a very great deal of the world. The last couple of years at BP were spent in Colombia at the time of the discovery and early development of the giant fields of the Llanos foothills, and Rod developed a fascination with Colombia and its geology which eventually took him from BP to consultant, business development and exploration manager roles in Monument, Lasmo and Emerald, all small companies with major interests in Colombia.
After Emerald Rod took up a new global consulting role within the Hess corporation which included substantial amount of regional work in salt provinces, particularly the Gulf of Mexico.
Rod has published on a breadth of structural geology and tectonics. He will have retired from Hess by the time this talk is given, will have taken up a research associate role at the University of Cambridge, and will be doing as much geology as his wife will allow.