Nick has been fascinated by geology since he was about six years old and spent much of his childhood and youth on mine tips, in quarries and in stream & river beds in NW England. In 1977 Nick graduated in Geology and Zoology at Bristol University and then followed through with a PhD on the Worston Shales of N. England. Nick joined the Institute of Geological Sciences (now the British Geological Survey-BGS) in 1980. He has been an international expert on Carboniferous rocks throughout his 33 year career with the BGS. His expertise has been used in surface and subsurface mapping of UK Carboniferous strata; coal, oil, gas exploration & development in the UK and Former Soviet Union; large civil engineering projects, radioactive waste storage, carbon capture & storage, underground natural gas storage & mineral exploration. From 2001 -2010 Nick was an adviser to UK government on Carbon Abatement Technologies and during that period he became BGS’ first “Head of Science for Energy”. He also advised the UK research councils “Energy Research Programme”
In the European Research Area Nick co-ordinated “CO2 GeoNet, the European Research Network of Excellence on research into underground CO2 storage from 2004-2009 and was the first President of the CO2GeoNet Association (2009-2011). He was also Chair of the EC Support Action “CO2Geological Storage (CGS) Europe”. He continues to advise on national energy research projects on CCS in Norway.
Nick’s last position at BGS was as “Team Leader for unconventional gas”. In this role he was a contributor and reviewer of the DECC report (published July 2013) on Carboniferous shale gas resources in northern & central England. By July 2013 Nick had left BGS (but remains an Honorary Research Associate regarding academic research) and set up his own company “Carboniferous Ltd” which provides specialist expertise on Carboniferous geology mainly across the energy sector.
Nick has published 27 papers in refereed journals, 6 book chapters in professional text books and numerous other publications by the BGS, UK government, and professional magazines. He was also a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s science & environment programme “Home Planet”.
In 2003 Nick was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen for “Services to UK Geoscience”.
