The Author

In 2014, I retired from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where I taught geology for 37 years. In the course of my career, I was Principal Investigator on a series of geological research projects funded by the Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, covering more than 1,200 miles of the Transantarctic Mountains. I twice served as Chief Scientist for large, remote, helicopter-supported camps (1981-82, northern Victoria Land; 2010-11, central Transantarctic Mountains.) Other research included NSF-funded studies in southern Arizona, the Alaska Range, and the Himalaya. I have written more than 70 scientific articles, and authored three books including Geology of Arizona, with Dale Nations (2nd ed., Kendall-Hunt, 1996), and The Ross Orogen of the Transantarctic Mountains, a scientific monograph on the rocks which are my specialty (Cambridge University Press, 1995.). I have always had a yen to travel, to see new places, and to experience them. I continue to find Nature miraculous on all levels. My choosing geology as a career was in part due to my perception that travel could be part of the job. For me to have had the opportunity to pursue an academic career and to have done research in the Transantarctic Mountains has been far beyond any of my early dreams. The intention of The Roof at the Bottom of the World is to let the secret out. There is this wondrous mountain range out there pushing deep into the interior of Antarctica, wilderness at the polar extreme. Behold!