Find the EGU on

Tag your tweets with #EGU17

SC21/GM13.3 ECS

Meet the Master (co-organized)
Convener: Emma Shuttleworth  | Co-Convener: Peter van der Beek 
Wed, 26 Apr, 17:30–19:00

Public information: We are very happy to announce that this year’s ‘master’ will be Professor Jim Best from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jim will present a talk entitled: ‘Sliding doors, bifurcations and confluences in an academic career’, after which there will be plenty of time for him to field questions from the audience.

Jim started his career by undertaking his undergraduate BSc in Geology and Geography at the University of Leeds, UK, after which he spent one year as a formation logging geologist (mud logger) working in the North Sea. He then went to Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, to conduct his doctoral research, again focusing on a topic that spanned across Geology and Physical Geography. In the final year of his PhD, he was appointed to a lectureship in Geology at the University of Hull, where he spent 5 years before moving back to the University of Leeds, as a Lecturer in Earth Sciences. Whilst at Leeds, Jim led establishment of the Sorby Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and was promoted to first a Readership in Experimental Sedimentology and then a personal chair in Process Sedimentology. In 2006, Jim took up a named chair in Geology and Geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and thus has experience of research, teaching and funding in both the UK and US higher education systems.

Jims’ research focusses on process sedimentology and geomorphology, and the interactions between fluid flow, sediment transport and the development of morphology, with his work having ranged in scale from turbulence and grain dynamics in the laboratory to study of some of the World’s largest rivers. His research also spans from experimental to theoretical, and from study of modern environments to interpretation of ancient sedimentary successions. In addition, Jim served as Principal Editor for Sedimentology for 4 years, chair of the British Sedimentological Research Group, and has been a panel member on a range of NERC, EPSRC and NSF Research Committees.