Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson was born in Carlisle and read geology and geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society. He spent 18 years surveying the geology of parts of the north of England for the British Geological Survey (BGS) and was subsequently responsible for the national programme which transformed BGS data into digital form. He was appointed as Information and Operations Director in 2000. Ian instigated and led OneGeology, a 120-nation project to make geological map data for the Earth available on the World Wide Web.
He retired in 2011 and now lives close to Hadrian''s Wall in Northumberland.
He received the Distinguished Service award from the UK Geological Society and also the Outstanding Contribution to Geoscience Informatics award by the Geological Society of America. He has produced many scientific maps, articles and reports during his career, but he is perhaps more widely known nowadays as the author of three books about the rocks of Northumberland, Cumbria and Durham.
In 2024 and 2025 he followed these with two books about the influence of the geology of Northern England on Roman infrastructure and their materials and possessions, and the relationship between prehistoric people and the northern landscape.