Christopher Jackson (geologist)

Christopher Jackson was born in Derby in the East Midlands, in an area geologically known as the Widmerpool Gulf (a sedimentary basin).[1][2] 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]

Jackson's research focuses on 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 centre, 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.

In 2020 he was appointed to the chair in sustainable geoscience at the University of Manchester.[8]

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."[9] Jackson is on the editorial board of the Journal of Petroleum Geology.[10] 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?"[11][12][13]

Part of the open access movement within academia, Jackson founded EarthArxiv, a free preprint service for the earth sciences.[14][15][16]

In 2017 Jackson joined a team of scientists and adventurers, including Xand Van Tulleken, to take part in an extraordinary expedition to volcanoes.[17] The two-part BBC documentary Expedition Volcano involved the scientists studying Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira, two of the world's most dangerous volcanoes located deep within the African Congo.[18][19]

In 2020 Jackson jointly presented the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on British television, thus becoming the first black scientist to do so.[20]

In 2021 he was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Life Scientific.[21]

• 2020  Imperial College - President’s Award for Excellence in Societal Engagement
• 2019: Journal of Sedimentary Research - Outstanding Paper Award[22]
• 2019:  Geological Society of America - GEOLOGY Journal, Exceptional Reviewer[23]
• 2018:  American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Carlos Walter M. Campos Memorial Award (Best Student Paper)[24]
• 2016: Geological Society of America - Thompson Distinguished Lecturer Award[25]
• 2015: American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award for Best Original Article[26]
• 2013–2016: Chair - British Sedimentological Research Group [27]
• 2013: Geological Society of London - Bigsby Medal[5]
• 2012–2013: Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), University of Texas at Austin - Research Fellowship[28]
• 2012–2013: American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Distinguished Lecturer[6]
• 2012–2015: American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Senior Associate Editor[29]
• 2012–2015: Basin Research - Editor[30]
• 2011: British Sedimentological Research Group - Roland Goldring Award[31]
• 2007: Dulwich International Conker Knockout - The R. Kelly Trophy [32]