John Ludden (geologist)

John Nicholas Ludden CBE FRSE is a British geologist, with expertise in igneous petrology and geochemistry. He was the 19th director of the British Geological Survey from 2006 to 2019, and has been president of the European Geosciences Union and the International Union of Geological Sciences.[1]

John Ludden

CBE FRSE
Alma materUniversity of Lancaster (BSc)
University of Manchester (PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Montreal
CNRS
British Geological Survey
Heriot-Watt University
ThesisThe petrology of Piton de la Fournaise Volcano, Reunion Island, western Indian Ocean (1976)
Doctoral advisorW.J. Wadsworth and B.F.G. Upton

Education

Ludden was educated at the Skinners' School in Royal Tunbridge Wells. From 1970 to 1973 he studied for a BSc in Environmental Sciences at the University of Lancaster, before undertaking a PhD in igneous petrology at the University of Manchester. He completed his doctoral thesis on the petrology of Piton de la Fournaise volcano, Reunion Island, under the supervision of W.J. Wadsworth and Brian Upton.[2]

Career

After completing his PhD, Ludden went to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US as a post-doctoral research fellow. In 1978, he was appointed to a faculty position as associate professor at the Université de Montréal in Canada. In 1984, Ludden was promoted to professor of geochemistry, and was research leader for a part of the Canadian Lithoprobe project, with a focus on the precambrian geology of the Abitibi greenstone belt.[3]

In 1994, Ludden moved to France, as director of the CNRS centre for petrography and geochemistry (CRPG), and director of a research group in Nancy, France. He also taught at ENSG-Nancy. From 2002 to 2006 he was associate director for Earth Sciences for CNRS.[3]

In 2006, Ludden was appointed Director of the British Geological Survey, succeeding David Falvey. He stepped down from this role in 2019, and took up the post of Bicentennial Research Professor at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, until 2022.[4]

Over the course of his research career, Ludden has published research papers on topics ranging from the evolution of the volcanoes of Reunion island[2] to the geology of the precambrian Canadian shield[5] and the weathering of ocean floor basalts.[6] In 1988, Ludden was co-chief scientist on Leg 123 of the Ocean Drilling Program, to the Argo abyssal plain of the Indian Ocean.[7]

Professional contributions

Ludden has held a number of senior positions in international geoscience associations, including:

In addition, Ludden has also joined the board of the Krafla magma testbed project.[10]

Awards

Ludden is also a Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences[9]

References
  1. "Academy of Europe: Ludden John". www.ae-info.org.
  2. Ludden, John N. (August 1, 1978). "Magmatic evolution of the basaltic shield volcanoes of Reunion Island". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 4 (1): 171–198. doi:10.1016/0377-0273(78)90035-5 – via ScienceDirect.
  3. "John Ludden". European Geosciences Union (EGU).
  4. "Head of BGS to join Heriot-Watt". www.hw.ac.uk. June 28, 2019.
  5. Ludden, John; Hynes, Andrew (April 2, 2000). "The Lithoprobe Abitibi-Grenville transect: two billion years of crust formation and recycling in the Precambrian Shield of Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 37 (2–3): 459–476. doi:10.1139/e99-120 – via CrossRef.
  6. Ludden, John N.; Thompson, Geoffrey (January 1, 1979). "An evaluation of the behavior of the rare earth elements during the weathering of sea-floor basalt". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 43 (1): 85–92. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(79)90157-2 – via ScienceDirect.
  7. "123 Initial Reports Table of Contents". www-odp.tamu.edu.
  8. "International Association of Geochemistry - Governance". www.iagc-society.org.
  9. "Professor appointed President of global geoscience organisation". www.hw.ac.uk. October 30, 2020.
  10. "Introduction by Prof. John Ludden".
  11. "Birthday Honours lists 2016". GOV.UK.
  12. "Professor John Ludden".


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