James Jackson, Professor of Active Tectonics and former Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Image Prof James Jackson Professor James Jackson was born and raised in India, which established his interest in all aspects of Asia, where much of his research has been concentrated. After a first degree in Geology, he obtained a PhD in Geophysics, using earthquakes to study the processes that produce the major surface features of the continents, such as mountain belts and basins. In addition to seismology, his current research uses the powerful range of satellite-based techniques now available, combined with observations of the landscape in the field, to study how the continents develop and deform on all scales, from the movement that occurs in individual earthquakes to the evolution of mountain belts. His fieldwork has taken him to many parts of Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, New Zealand and North America. He is increasingly involved in how to use the insights obtained by geologists to reduce the appalling risk from earthquakes to populations in developing countries, and currently leads a project called ‘Earthquakes Without Frontiers’ which is a consortium of researchers in UK universities and other institutions, working in partnership with independent earthquake scientists and social scientists in countries throughout the great earthquake belt between Italy and China. One of its aims is to improve earthquake science and earthquake risk reduction through the exchange of knowledge, information, techniques and data between partner countries. In 1995 he delivered the Royal Institution/BBC Christmas Lectures on 'Planet Earth: an Explorer's Guide'. He has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the American Geophysical Union, and is also a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge. In 2015 he was awarded a CBE and also the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. This article was published on 2024-07-01
