John Wheeler, geoscientist

E-mail: johnwh [to be found at] liverpool.ac.uk 

Liverpool profile: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/environmental-sciences/staff/John-Wheeler/

Twitter:  @johneclogite https://twitter.com/johneclogite

I am the George Herdman Professor of Geology at the University of Liverpool. This website gives information about my work.

In my research:

• I have developed new numerical microstructural analysis techniques, including
  • Analysing Electron Backscatter Diffraction data which gives a submicron scale picture of crystal orientation
  • Using grain scale isotope data to deduce thermal histories
  • Current work is with various EBSD groups around the world
•  I have developed new numerical microstructural and large scale models,including for
  • interactions between stress and chemical processes in rocks
  • reactive fluid flow in a deforming medium
  • diffusion creep at the grain scale
  • Current work includes unravelling those interactions in projects with experimentalists at Edinburgh and Utrecht
• I have researched orogenic evolution using fieldwork, metamorphic, microstructural and geochronological techniques, including
  • the European Alps, particularly the role of eclogites
  • the Lewisian Complex of NW Scotland

In recent years I have focussed on applying mathematical and theoretical skills to interpreting rock behaviour, using my understanding of fundamental physical and chemical processes, and aided by the exciting advances in observational and experimental techniques of the 21st century. Here are three hot topics:

	Analysing crystal orientation data - we can now gather vast datasets using Electron Backscatter Diffraction, so we need new techniques to automate analysis of them. I have devised new techniques including one to analyse intracrystalline distortion, using software developed since the late 1990s when the technique was quite new to geoscience. Details here.
	Interactions between stress and chemical processes in rocks - agreed as a key research topic in metamorphic geology by the Mineralogical Society of America at their 2019 Centennial Symposium (slide from Mike Brown). My first paper on this topic was published in 1987. Details here. Such interactions form part of a new project to study mantle dynamics, news item here. There will be a more detailed website one day.
	Synchrotron X-ray tomography of metamorphic reactions. This is bassanite (pale) growing from gypsum (grey) with porosity developing (black). Click on the image - it's the first clear movie of a metamorphic reaction involving fluid production (Bedford et al. 2017).