Professor Jon Davidson, BSc, PhD

Jon Davidson is Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University.  He obtained a BSc Honours degree in Geological Sciences from Durham University in 1981 followed by a PhD from the University of Leeds in 1984.  Jon was appointed to Durham in 2000 and served as Head of Department until 2005.  He was previously Assistant, Associate and Full Professor of Geology and Geochemistry, Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California (at LA) from 1988-2001 and Vice-Chair from 1992-94. He was Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan from 1987-88 and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Southern Methodist University, from 1984-87.  He began his research evaluating the sources and processes which determine the nature of magmatic rocks at arcs.  He is recognised for integrating modern geochemical - particularly isotopic - methods with detailed petrology and fieldwork at subduction zones across the world, from the West Indies to Kamchatka, New Zealand and the Andes.  More recently he has developed techniques for isotopically fingerprinting magmatic components at the scale of individual minerals.  His research group now focuses on this approach and leads the world in its application.  Whilst at UCLA Jon was awarded the Wager medal of the IAVCEI (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior) in 1998 and the Luckman Teaching Award in 1994 and in 2011 won the Coke Medal of the Geological Society.  Jon has published more than 90 peer- reviewed articles, edited 2 thematic collections and is lead author of an introductory textbook in Earth Sciences.  He has been lead Principal Investigator on grants totalling more than £1.1 million since 2000.  Jon was Chair of the Committee of Heads of University Geoscience Departments (CHUGD) from 2007-2009 and has served on the Peer Review College for NERC 2003-2006 and 2010-.  In February 2007 he led a panel review of isotope geoscience capacity in the UK on behalf of NERC.  He was Leader of the Subduction Zone Magmatism Commission (IAVCEI) from 1998-2004, President of the Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group of the Geological Society of London from 2006-09. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Petrology since 1999 and served as its Associate Editor from 1996-99.  He was on the Editorial Board of Geology 2008-2010.

Jon is a staff member of Council, which he joined in March 2008, a member of Academic Progression Committee and Deputy Head of Science Faculty (Research), a member of REF 2014 Panel B7 and is President of the Mineralogical Society.