Chief Editor, Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society

I am delighted to inform you that Professor Paul Wignall, Professor of Palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds, has accepted my formal invitation to take over the post of Chief Editor for the PYGS from Dr. Stewart Molyneux with effect from the AGM scheduled for December 5th 2020.  In the meantime, Paul will liaise with Stewart and the Geological Society Publishing House to effect a smooth handover of the relevant responsibilities.

Paul will be well-known to many members, not least for his term as President in 2009-10, but for those less familiar the following information, taken from the University of Leeds website, will undoubtedly prove the significance and value of this appointment.

Professor Paul Wignall

Specialist knowledge: Mass extinctions and faunal recovery; black shales; anoxic environments; basin history; large igneous provinces.

Paul lectures in palaeontology and sedimentology. He obtained his first degree at the University of Oxford and his PhD at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Professor Tony Hallam and has been a lecturer at Leeds since 1989. He has collaborated with numerous colleagues both nationally and internationally, especially at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), during his wide ranging field expeditions. Paul has published over 200 research articles and 3 books, most recently: “The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived 80 Million Years of Extinctions”, published by Princeton University Press. His research explores a very broad spectrum of interconnected topics that range from flood basalt eruptions to palaeoecology. He has supervised nearly 30 PhD students and received several awards including the Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Model of the EGU and the Wolfson Merit Award from the Royal Society. He has served on the REF panel, been editor of several geological journals, been president of several geological societies, including the YGS, and appeared in over a dozen science documentaries.

Paul Hildreth, President, Yorkshire Geological Society

For further details please see Paul's profile at https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1607/professor-paul-wignall