After completing an Honours degrees at the University of Newcastle, I undertook a PhD at Melbourne University, completing in 1995. My PhD work focused on the structural and metamorphic evolution of Proterozoic terrains in Antarctica and central Australia.
Following my PhD I was awarded an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (APD) at the University of Adelaide where I continued to investigate the thermal evolution of the continental crust. I was then awarded a Australian Research Council Research Fellowship (ARF). The emphasis of this research involved investigating the origin of high temperature processes in the crust, and the role that heat producing elements such as uranium and thorium play in controlling the geological record of the Australian continent.
After being appointed as a lecturer at the University of Adelaide in 2000, we formed the Continental Evolution Research Group, an informal grouping of between of around 15 researchers focussed on tectonic processes. In recent years CERG was merged into the Centre for Tectonics, Resources and Exploration.