John Nicholas Ludden

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

is a British geologist, with expertise in igneous petrology and geochemistry. He was the 19th

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

of the

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS h ...

from 2006 to 2019, and has been president of the

European Geosciences Union The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headq ...

and the

International Union of Geological Sciences The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology. About The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the Inte ...

Education

Ludden was educated at

the Skinners' School The Skinners' School (formally The Skinners' Company's Middle School for Boys and commonly known as Skinners'), is a British Grammar School with academy status for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Established in ...

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

. From 1970 to 1973 he studied for a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Environmental Sciences at the

University of Lancaster , mottoeng = Truth lies open to all , established = , endowment = £13.9 million , budget = £317.9 million , type = Public , city = Bailrigg, City of Lancaster , country = England , coor = , campus = Bailrigg , faculty = 1 ...

, before undertaking a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

igneous petrology Igneous petrology is the study of igneous rocks—those that are formed from magma. As a branch of geology, igneous petrology is closely related to volcanology, tectonophysics, and petrology in general. The modern study of igneous rocks utilizes a ...

at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. He completed his doctoral thesis on the petrology of

Piton de la Fournaise Piton de la Fournaise (; en, "Peak of the Furnace") is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Réunion island (a French overseas department and region) in the Indian Ocean. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world, along ...

volcano,

Reunion Island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, US ...

, under the supervision of W.J. Wadsworth and Brian Upton.

Career

After completing his PhD, Ludden went to

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

in the US as a post-doctoral research fellow. In 1978, he was appointed to a faculty position as

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

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 Lithoprobe was a Canadian national geoscience research project funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council from 1984 to 2005, and one of the largest geoscientific research programs in Canadian history. The project aimed to resea ...

project, with a focus on the

precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

geology of the Abitibi greenstone belt. In 1994, Ludden moved to France, as director of the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

centre for petrography and geochemistry (CRPG), and director of a research group in

Nancy, France Nancy ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Nanzisch'' is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the northeastern Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was Lorraine and Barrois, an ...

. He also taught at ENSG-Nancy. From 2002 to 2006 he was associate director for Earth Sciences for CNRS. 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 Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

, Edinburgh, until 2022. Over the course of his research career, Ludden has published research papers on topics ranging from the evolution of the volcanoes of Reunion island to the geology of the precambrian Canadian shield and the weathering of ocean floor basalts. In 1988, Ludden was co-chief scientist on Leg 123 of the Ocean Drilling Program, to the Argo abyssal plain of the Indian Ocean.

Professional contributions

Ludden has held a number of senior positions in international geoscience associations, including: * Vice-president of the

International Association of GeoChemistry The IAGC (International Association of GeoChemistry, formerly known as the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry) is affiliated with the International Union of Geological Sciences and has been one of the pre-eminent intern ...

, 2000 to 2004. * President of the International Association of Geochemistry, 2004 to 2008. * President of the

from April 2005 to April 2007. * Vice-president of the European Geosciences Union from April 2007 to April 2008. * President of the

, 2020 to present In addition, Ludden has also joined the board of the

Krafla Krafla () is a volcanic caldera of about 10 km in diameter with a 90 km long fissure zone. It is located in the north of Iceland in the Mývatn region and is situated on the Iceland hotspot atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which forms the ...

magma testbed project.

Awards

* 2006 – Elected to membership of the Academia Europaea. * 2016 – Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to geoscience in the Birthday Honours list. * 2021 – Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). Ludden is also a Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludden, John Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of the University of Manchester British geologists Directors of the British Geological Survey