Honorary staff

Ian Fairchild is a geoscientist with broad interests in the geochemistry of the Earth’s surface, climate change and Quaternary and Neoproterozoic earth history. He employs this breadth of knowledge in research and public outreach including geoconservation in the West Midlands. He is equally at home in the field and the laboratory with a wealth of experience in glacial ...

Dr Trevor Faulkner is a karst geomorphologist with a special interest in the speleogenesis of karst caves in sedimentary and metamorphic limestones and their relationships to Quaternary glaciations. He has pioneered a multi-disciplinary research approach involving glacial erosion, deglacial and interglacial processes, isostatic uplift, neotectonics, seismicity, and limestone dissolution at low ...

John Gunn is a multi-disciplinary scientist working on a single rock – limestone – and on the karst environments that form on limestone. He is also an active speleologist and is involved in cave exploration and underground research. His research interests include: conservation and management of cave and karst geoheritage and resources; the hydrogeology of karst; the evolution of karst ...

Dr Neville Hollingworth is an expert field geologist with a penchant for finding exceptional fossils. His discoveries in the UK have caught the attention of the national media. As some of his finds are new to science these have been published in collaboration with staff from the School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Dr Sarah King is an expert in the biogeography of late Palaeozoic wetland plant communities from the ancient European and Chinese landmasses. Her research covers ecological, evolutionary and migrational processes, as well as the quality of the fossil record. She is also interested in the accessibility and utility of geological and natural history museum collections, both to academic researchers ...

For nearly 30 years Jon has worked as a geologist and natural scientist principally within the museum sector and has developed expertise in the public understanding and interpretation of science, collecting philosophies, and geoconservation. Jon also has a spare-time research profile, notably concerning the Lower and Middle Jurassic strata of central England, the non-marine Lower Cretaceous ...

Since retiring in 2010, Alan Thomas has maintained collaborative research activity in various aspects of Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy, palaeontology and palaeoenvironments.