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Award-winning educator John Underhill has a special passion for Greek culture – and at the
core of that relationship is geology.
Underhill
from page 48
not only take place within school curricula,
but between academia and industry as well.
“I am delighted to have been a member
of AAPG since 1984, some 29 years
now,” he said, a bit proud of his academic
credentials in a professional society adding
that, “It has given me so much through
conferences, publication and fellowship
over that time.”
For the record, he is associate
professor in the Institute of Petroleum
Engineering at Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh; Fellow of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh; Fellow of the Geological
Society since 1982 (Council Member
2005-08); was head of the Earth and
Planetary Sciences Research Group in
the School of Geosciences; and was the
president of the European Association of
Geoscientists and Engineers for 2011-12.
He also was the 1998-99 Allan P.
Bennison Distinguished Lecturer in North
America, presenting the talk “The Role of
Propagating Normal Faults in Controlling
Sequence Variability and Sediment
Dispersal in Rift Systems.”
He always seems to be teaching.
But along the way, he also has worked
for Shell in various locations throughout the
globe, including London and The Hague,
and spent time with BP in Glasgow and
Norsk Hydro, which, he says, was beneficial
to both business and academia.
“It allowed me to maintain links with
industry and develop my own skill set to
train, educate and inform a generation of
students” – students who keep changing,
demanding more.
“I try to keep the content of lectures
up-to-date,” he said. “Making them topical,
timely and relevant is essential as is being
enthusiastic.”
I Get a Kick Out of …
50 MAY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG
There’s something else, too, that has
occupied his time, his life – something that
lies between avocation and recreation: For
over 28 years he was a soccer referee of
which 14 included officiating on international
FIFA matches between 1994-2008.
And as dissimilar as geology and the
sport may seem, they both represent
something similar to Underhill.
“I have been fortunate,” he said, “to
follow two hobbies as careers.”
Growing up, he says, he loved sports,
generally, but soccer, specifically – and
played through college.
“Having picked up an injury whilst
representing my university, I turned to
refereeing as a way and means to get back
fit and back on the pitch.”
And then a strange thing happened.
“I discovered I had a greater aptitude for
it than playing,” he said. “I am not sure if that
made me a failed footballer or a promising
referee.”
You’d have to put money on the latter,
for he has officiated at the top levels of
Scottish and European Football for years,
including 132 SPL matches and more than
40 international matches – including World
Cup games.
And there was at least one time when
his worlds of geology and football meshed
perfectly – at the 2008 AAPG International
Conference and Exhibition in Cape Town,
South Africa, when he “refereed” a debate
on the causes of the infamous Lusi mud
volcano in northeast Java.
“I readily agreed to taking on what I saw
as a fascinating and challenging task as a
facilitator with a front-row seat,” he said at
the time.
He is now retired from the sport – and for
him, not a moment too soon.
Or as he says, “Before I made any highly
contentious decisions that would haunt me
forever.”
He’s being modest. One imagines that
many students grow up to be coaches and
players – and somebody has to deal with
them.
His joy, though, and the reason for the
award have been found in the classroom
where he strives to inform, educate and
inspire.
“There is nothing like seeing a student
suddenly grasping a difficult concept,”
Underhill said, “It is those Eureka moments
that make it all worthwhile.”
“It is a rewarding and enriching
experience to see others that you have
in some small way helped then go on to
succeed in their chosen career path.”
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