is a Professor in the School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, UK. He has been Secretary and Chair of the Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy and remains a Titular Member. He is also on the working group charged with redefining the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Specializing in spores, he has worked widely across the Devonian world including Scotland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Spain, Russia, Bolivia and China. Current projects include the Late and End Devonian mass extinctions, the spread of the first forests and the age and environment of Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous tetrapods.
Kirsty Edgar is an Associate Professor of Micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research looks at the timing and nature of the interaction between global climate, biogeochemical cycling and marine life during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. She has been a member of the Geological Society of London’s Stratigraphy Commission since 2019 and their web person since 2021. She is currently also President of The Micropalaeontology Society (2022-2025).
Graham Shields is Professor of Chemical Geology at University College London, UK. He is a former chair of the International Subcommission on Cryogenian Stratigraphy (2012–20) and currently heads the International Commission on Stratigraphy working group on chronostratigraphical subdivision of the pre- Cryogenian timescale. His research traces the evolution of biogeochemical cycles and surface environments.
Paul Bown is Professor of Micropalaeontology at University College, London, UK. His research focuses on the links between biotic evolution and environmental change by studying the fossil record of the extant eukaryotic phytoplankton group, the coccolithophores and other geological data, including geochemistry, stratigraphy and palaeoceanography. He was formerly secretary of the International Commission on Stratigraphy.
Dan Condon is a geochronologist working at the British Geological Survey, UK, where he co-leads a national isotope facility for UK researchers. His research focuses on the chronology of the stratigraphical record and working with the international community to develop, share and implement best practice. He has particular expertise in U-daughter geochronology.
John C. W. Cope became Honorary Research Fellow at the National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK after 42 years lecturing in Swansea and Cardiff universities, UK. Interested in stratigraphy, palaeontology and palaeogeography, he has published on many parts of the geological column and many fossil groups, but especially Jurassic ammonites and stratigraphy and Ordovician bivalves. He joined the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society, London in 1978.
Philip Gibbard is Emeritus Professor of Quaternary Palaeoenvironments at Cambridge University, UK and Dosent at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a Quaternary stratigrapher. He is past-chair of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy and is Secretary General of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. In 2019 he was awarded the Digby McLaren Medal by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and in 2021 the Merit Medal by the German Quaternary Association.
David Harper is Emeritus Professor of Palaeontology at Durham University, UK. He is Chair of the International Commission for Stratigraphy. He is a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Royal Swedish Physiographic Society and an Einstein Professor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Stephen Hesselbo is Professor of Geology at the University of Exeter, UK and leads the Deep Time Global Change research group at the Camborne School of Mines. His interests are mainly in Mesozoic geology, with a specialist focus on Jurassic Earth History using integrated stratigraphical techniques, but also extend across the whole Phanerozoic. He is a former chair of the International Subcommission on Jurassic Stratigraphy and has extensive experience in field geology and scientific coring projects.
Andrew C Kerr is Professor of Petrology in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. His research interests include the petrogenesis of large igneous provinces (LIPs) and their identification in the geological record including the links between LIPs and mass extinction events. He is currently editor in-chief of Results in Geochemistry.
Michael J. Oates retired in 2015 from an international career in the energy industry. He now pursues his personal interests in UK Mesozoic stratigraphy, particularly Jurassic mudstone formations and has published several works on the Lias and Ancholme Group. He is a longstanding member of the Geologists’ Association Council, UK and local geology groups.
David Ray is a Technical Advisor at Halliburton, UK and has worked in the energy industry since 2008. His research is focused on constructing sequence stratigraphic models and Silurian stratigraphy. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK and the current secretary of the International Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy.
Colin Reeves specialises in the application of geophysical methods to the mapping of large areas of covered geology from the air. Since 1970 he has worked on country-wide projects in Australia, Canada, India and many countries of Africa. From 1983 to 2004 he was Professor in Exploration Geophysics at ITC in Delft. In retirement he employs these new insights into southern hemisphere geology to refine models of Gondwana and its dispersion, illustrated at
www.reeves.nl/gondwana.
Matthew Wakefield is an applied biostratigrapher with 30 years of industry experience. He has published on the application of micropalaeontology, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and bio-sequence stratigraphy at basin and reservoir scales. He currently mixes consultancy work with his own research interests in Scottish Jurassic stratigraphy and micropalaeontology. He is also a long standing officer of The Micropaleontological Society, currently being Chair of Trustees for the TMS Education Trust that supports post graduate training.
Chuang Xuan is an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, UK. His research investigates the nature and timing of magnetic signals preserved in geological archives, and uses this information to study the dynamics, causes and consequences of palaeomagnetic changes on various time and spatial scales.