As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I read Gerald Durrell’s books over and over and was attracted to his life of travel and collecting animals. This is more or less what I ended up doing – except all the animals are dead.
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Explain your work in one easy paragraph.
I am director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History. I also do research and teaching in geology and palaeontology.
How did you end up working in this field?
In my mid-20s, I had a few months spare before taking up a lectureship and passed the time working in the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge. I enjoyed it and shifted direction in consequence.
Did you have to overcome any particular challenges to get where you are today?
As a white male, not as much as some people, but I grew up in a declining, post-industrial mill town in east Lancashire and it concerns me that this is sometimes still seen as an unconventional route.
What’s the most exciting thing you’ve worked on in your career?
I did my PhD on conodonts, animals that lived between 500 and 200 million years ago. No one knew what kind of animals they were. I was lucky to be part of the team that determined that conodonts were primitive eel-like vertebrates and among the earliest active predators.
What achievement or discovery are you most proud of?
Aside from the conodonts, I was involved in the primary geological mapping of Crown Prince Christian Land in the remote north-east corner of Greenland. Two of us mapped a 4500-square-kilometre area of mainly untrodden ground.
Were you good at science at school?
I was always keen and good at biology, and developed a love of geography and history.
If you could send a message back to yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Work harder at the things you aren’t naturally interested in.
If you could have a conversation with any scientist living or dead, who would it be?
William Scoresby – Greenland explorer and map maker in the early 19th century, and one of the first Arctic scientists.
Is there a discovery or achievement you wish you’d made yourself?
The Burgess Shale fossil deposit in British Columbia, Canada – a remarkable window on the evolutionary origin of animals in the Cambrian era around 510 million years ago.
“Field geologists are like cockroaches – they will survive in a post-apocalypse world”
What’s the best thing you’ve read or seen in the past 12 months?
I’m passionate about theatre, and the thing that stands out is , written by John Kani. It’s a reflection on apartheid and South Africa over the past 25 years, but also very funny.
What scientific development do you hope to see in your lifetime?
On the altruistic side, a way to rapidly sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. More selfishly, a locality with exceptional fossil preservation close to the start of the Cambrian, to understand better the initial, rapid diversification of animals.
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
Field geologists are like cockroaches – they will survive in a post-apocalypse world. Fieldwork in the high Arctic means being resourceful and adaptable – as well as tolerant of discomfort, and I would relish the chance to document the planet recovering from a major mass extinction event.
OK one last thing: tell us something that will blow our minds…
I was shipwrecked at 76° north whilst doing field work in Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic. Our 25-metre research ship hit a submerged rock and sank. No one was seriously injured, but we were left with only the clothes we stood up in.