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Professor Jonathan C. Aitchison School of the Environment, University of Queensland

Jonathan Aitchison is a Professor in the School of the Environment (SENV) at the University of Queensland (UQ), where he leads research at the intersection of plate tectonics, paleontology, and sedimentary geology. Originally from New Zealand, he grew up on an active plate boundary, an environment that inspired his lifelong fascination with the processes that shape Earth’s dynamic crust.

Professor Aitchison earned his BSc (Hons) and MSc in geology from the University of Otago, including early fieldwork in Antarctica, before moving to Japan as a Monbusho Scholar at Niigata University. He later completed his PhD at the University of New England (Australia), where he reconstructed the tectonic evolution of the New England Orogen using radiolarian microfossils to date marine successions and constrain major tectonic events. This expertise led to his role as a micropaleontologist on Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 126, investigating intra-oceanic island arc development in the Izu–Bonin–Mariana system.

After completing a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellowship at Kochi University, Aitchison joined the University of Sydney in the early 1990s, before moving to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1995. At HKU, he established and led the Tibet Research Group, pioneering studies of the India–Asia collision system—research he has pursued for more than three decades. He served as Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU from 2003 to 2009.

In 2011, Aitchison returned to Australia as the Edgeworth David Chair of Geology and Head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. In 2015 he shifted to Brisbane to take up Headship of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at UQ. He oversaw the merger that created the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, leading this school from 2017 to 2021.

His research continues to span multiple frontiers in Earth Science. He maintains active programs in micropaleontology and tectonics, including the evolution of Early Paleozoic radiolarians and the application of synchrotron microCT imaging to microfossils. His long-standing work on the India–Asia collision integrates field studies in northwestern and northeastern India with broader models of Himalayan–Tibetan orogenesis. He also investigates the Paleozoic tectonics of eastern Gondwana.

Recent projects highlight the breadth of his interests: a groundbreaking study of organic carbon recycling that uncovered “bio-diamonds” in ophiolites of the southwest Pacific, and a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tokyo examining accreted cherts as potential reservoirs of rare earth elements.

Professor Aitchison’s career reflects a commitment to integrating paleontological detail with large-scale tectonic processes, offering new insights into both Earth’s past and its critical resources for the future.

My research career began when I recognised that the marine world has a history and pattern that can explain the past, understand the present, and predict the future. I started studying beaches and coral reefs since they are iconic and complex systems where marine, ecological, geological and human processes interact to produce the ecosystems we see today. My goal, and that of my lab (The BeachLab), is to develop tools, gather data, and provide analyses to help coastlines and coral reefs navigate a warmer world. Our projects are focused on fundamental research questions about how coasts and coral reefs change through time. We also have applied research objectives to support the future management of coastal and coral reef systems.

I am now a teacher and researcher in Geography at the School of the Environment at UQ. Prior to my appointment at UQ, I was a teacher and researcher at The University of Sydney (where I completed my Undergraduate and PhD degrees) and in a combined post at The University of Bremen (MARUM) and the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT). Perhaps equally importantly I grew up on the east coast of Australia and I have a personal and professional passion for beaches, coral reefs, surf, and the ocean.

I use geochemistry to investigate the roles of fluids and volatiles in geological processes stretching from the Earth's surface to the deep mantle. I am particularly interested in hydrothermal alteration, metasomatism/metamorphism and magmatism. The common link between these areas, and the aim of my recent research, has been to investigate the longterm exchange of volatiles between the Earth's surface and mantle reservoirs, stretching from the seafloor, through subduction zones and into the mantle. I participated in Expedition 360 of the International Ocean Discovery Program in 2016, to the slow-spreading Atlantis Bank core complex on the SW Indian Ridge, where I acted as shipboard geochemist and crossed the equator by boat for the first time. I have long standing interests in fluid inclusions as tiny recorders of past fluid activity and special interests in the halogen and noble gas groups of elements.

I moved to UQ in 2019 from the Australian National University where I was a continuing Fellow and had held an ARC Future Fellowship. Prior to that I had an ARC QEII Fellowship at the University of Melbourne (2008-2013) and postdoctoral appointments at the University of Melbourne (2004-2008) and the Geological Survey of Norway (2001-2003). I did my PhD at the University of Manchester (2001) and undergraduate studies in Geology at the University of Edinburgh (1996).

Research interest: Monitoring ecosystem health of coral reefs and seagrass habitats, integrating field and remote sensing image datasets, and the developing applied cost-effective mapping and monitoring approaches. Developed approaches have been adopted as standard practice globally, making a difference in conservation of these valuable habitats. The long term monitoring studies at Heron and Moreton Bay formed the basis for the development of mapping and monitoring over time and space at local to global scale. See here major research impact

Major projects:

• Long term monitoring of benthic composition at Heron Reef (2002-ongoing).
• Long term monitoring of seagrass composition and abundance in Moreton bay Marine Park (2000-ongoing).
• Smart Sat CRC Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Seagrass and Coral Reefs 2023-2027.
• Developement of Underwater Field Spectrometry and Benthic Photo Collection and Analysis
• 3D GBR Habitat Mapping Project 2015 - ongoing:
• Global habitat mapping project 2019-2023 Allen Coral Atlas .

Current position: Associate Professior in Marine Remote Sensing leading the Marine Ecosystem Monitoring Lab. . Academic Director Heron Island Research Station and affiliated researchers with Centre for Marine Science and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Capacity Building and Citizen Science: Capacity: under/post graduate courses; Msc/PhD supervision, workshops/courses; Remote Sensing Educational Toolkit, and online courses (e.g. TNC).Strong supporter of citizen science based projects, as trainer, organiser and advisor for Reef Check Australia, CoralWatch, Great Reef Census and UniDive.