Johnson Cann

Educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire, Cann graduated from St John's College, Cambridge, with a first class BA in 1959, and an MA in 1961. He earned a PhD at the University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences in 1962, where he studied with Cecil Edgar Tilley. His postdoctoral studies saw him remain at St John's College as a Research Fellow but also saw periods of study in the US Office of Naval Research and as a Senior Scientific Officer in the Department of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum, London.[2]

His academic teaching career began when he was appointed to a lectureship in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1965. He was promoted to Reader in 1973 but left shortly after to take the position of J B Simpson Professor of Geology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.[2]

Following a reorganisation of Earth Sciences in British universities resulting from the 1987 University Grants Committee's report Strengthening University Earth Sciences he moved to the University of Leeds where he was Chairman of the School of Earth Sciences from 1989 to 1995.[2] While Professor at Leeds he also held a visiting position as an Adjunct Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States.[3] In 1987 he instigated, and subsequently led, the Natural Environment Research Council's British Mid-Ocean Ridge Initiative (BRIDGE), a major UK investigation of the creation of the Earth's crust in the deep oceans. For his contributions to research he was awarded an ScD in 1984, the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1990 and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995.[2][4]

Strengthening University Earth Sciences: Report of the Earth Sciences Review