Personal Statement
David (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in Geology, current Head of the Earth Sciences Research Group (ESRG), and Deputy Director of the Scanning Electron Microscopy Shared Research Facility (SEM SRF). David's research and teaching centres on links between structure, stress, mineralisation, and fluid flow and how these geological processes effect energy-critical geosystems such as geothermal resources, CO2 storage, and ore deposits, and geohazards such as fault stability and slow slip earthquakes.

Current research projects include understanding investigating hydrothermal mineral alteration processes at the mid-Atlantic Ridge with the International Ocean Discovery Program, exploring carbon mineralisation in igneous rocks, investigating structural networks and lithium distribution in altered granites, assessing potential of sedimentary geothermal aquifers, and discovering mineral nucleation and growth mechanisms in fractured energy critical resources such as geothermal reservoirs and critical material resources such are ore bodies.

David conducted his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and his PhD in structural geology and metamorphism at the University of Liverpool. After finishing his PhD, David worked for eight years as a research scientist and industry consultant with the Natural Resources Division of Earth Sciences New Zealand, until taking a Lectureship in Geology at the University of Galway in 2016, before returning to University of Liverpool in 2019.

Research Overview
David's research centres on structure, stress, mineralisation, and fluid flow in the Earth's crust and how this impacts:
a) Energy-critical geological resources such as geothermal reservoirs, energy-critical-element ore bodies, and carbon capture and storage.
b) Mineral carbonation, both natural and engineering, and its role in the global carbon-cycle.
c) Mineral vein formation and its role in the Earth's crack-seal cycle.
d) Geohazards such as fault stability and slow slip earthquakes

I employ a range of geoscientific skills from wireline logging, borehole image logging, fault trenching, field mapping, and drill-core analysis, combined with expert skills in microanalysis of Earth materials including electron backscatter diffraction, cathodoluminesence, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.