Christopher Jackson

Christopher Aiden-Lee Jackson (born 1977) is a professor of geology at Imperial College London. He is known for his work in geoscience, especially in the use of 3D seismic data to understand dynamic processes in sedimentary basins.

Education

Christopher Jackson was born in the East Midlands in an area called the Widmerpool Gulf, a sedimentary basin He attended Wilmorton Primary School and Noel Baker Community school. Jackson completed a BSc in Geology at the University of Manchester in 1998. He stayed on at the same institution to undertake a PhD in the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins with Rob Gawthorpe, completing in 2002.

Research and career

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". After completing his PhD in 2002, he was an exploration research geologist in the Norsk Hydro research centre, Bergen.

In 2004 he 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. In 2014 Jackson joined the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin as a Visiting Scientist. Between 2015 - 2016 he was a Visiting Lecturer in Petroleum Science at the University of Namibia. In an 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". Jackson is on the editorial board of the Journal of Petroleum Geology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. Jackson delivered the closing of the 2015 Geological Society of London lecture series, "Terra Infirma: What has salt tectonics ever done for us?".

Open access

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

Broadcasting

Expedition Volcano

In 2017 Jackson joined a team of scientists and adventurers, including Xand Van Tulleken, to take part in an extraordinary expedition to volcanoes. 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.

Awards

• 2016 - Geological Society of America - Thompson Distinguished Lecturer Award
• 2015 - American Association of Petroleum Geologists - William E. Pratt Memorial Award for Best Original Article
• 2013-2016 - Chair - British Sedimentological Research Group
• 2013 - Geological Society of London - Bigsby Medal
• 2012-2013 - Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), University of Texas at Austin - Research Fellowship
• 2012-2013 - American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Distinguished Lecturer
• 2012-2015 - American Association of Petroleum Geologists - Senior Associate Editor
• 2012-2015 - Basin Research - Editor
• 2011 - British Sedimentological Research Group - Roland Goldring Award
• 2007 - Dulwich International Conker Knockout - The R. Kelly Trophy