I have 40+ years of experience in Mesozoic nannofossil taxonomy and biostratigraphy.

 

I've worked on samples from all of the ocean basins, the North Sea and GoM, and onshore sections from Canada to Argentina (with particular experience in all of the US Mesozoic shale plays, e.g. Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Niobrara, Mancos, Pierre, Lewis), Denmark to South Africa, and Russia to Australia.

 

Because I pay attention to detail, I've discovered and published around 100 new species of nannofossil.

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I'm co-author of the Nannotax3 website (http://www.mikrotax.org/Nannotax3/index.php?dir=Mesozoic) – a free online resource for teaching and learning nannofossil taxonomy – and organised two taxonomic-equivalency workshops related to the initial development of that, here in Houston.

 

My nannofossil biozonation scheme for the Upper Cretaceous, published in 1998, is calibrated to the stage boundaries and is still used throughout industry and academia. I'm currently in the process of updating this.

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Preservation affects fossil data and, thus, interpretation – I did my PhD on poorly- to moderately-preserved onshore UK chalk, have studied the effects of permeability, porosity and burial of North Sea chalks on nannofossil preservation, have logged numerous poorly-preserved deep-water GoM and NW Atlantic wells, and, as part of my personal research, am currently involved in documenting the well-preserved nannofossils of Mississippi, and the pristinely-preserved nannofossils of Tanzania as part of my ongoing involvement in the Tanzania Drilling Project. Consequently, I am highly experienced in understanding and assessing nannofossil data quality.

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As a Senior Research Associate in the Dept. of Earth Sciences, I maintain an affiliation with UCL, where I was involved in training many geologists in the industry, including several who ended up here in Houston, who did the Micropalaeontology MSc course or nannofossil PhDs at UCL in the 1990s and 2000s.

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Over the last 30+ years, I've consulted independently for various companies, and was employed by a company in Houston in 2014–2017, prior to becoming independent again.

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My expertise is clear to see from my peer-reviewed publications, and the quality of my work can be testified to by numerous people in the industry - feel free to ask around about me.

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Experience counts!

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