GLOBAL CHANGE

• Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography. Not only historical palaeoclimatology, but also climate modeling, basic climate dynamics, an examination of geological climate proxies, and the history of palaeoclimate study. An understanding of both palaeoclimatology and oceanography are critical for understanding stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeontology, and their application to exploration geology.
  
  
• Biodiversity and Biogeography. The issue of biodiversity is an important one, not only for present concerns but also for understanding the past record of life. This topic, together with biogeography, could be taught as a stand alone course, or as an intergrated part of another course, such as palaeontology or global change.
  
  
• Global Change. This covers a variety of topics including, climate dynamics, palaeontology, oceanography, climatology, surface processes and biodiversity. The emphasis, however, is how these issues apply to inviduals and their lives: managing resources, planning for the consequences of climate change (anthropogenic and natural). This subject is best taught through the use of GIS.
  
  

GIS AND DATA ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT

• GIS for geologists. The concepts behind GIS, database design, developing GIS models. Use of ESRI's ArcGIS and ArcGIS Spatial Analysis tools.
  
  
• Guide to presenting research. This is a course that has been absent from every department I have been a member of, but which would address a very important part of science. I would anticipate teaching this in conjunction with other members of a department, and would aim to include, amongst other things, advice on how to approach writing a paper, how to present a seminar, and what makes a good slide.
  
  

GENERAL GEOLOGY

• Global Geology. Familiarity with global geology is an important asset for any geologist. Such a course would be set in the context of tectonics, and would include a section on constructing palaeogeography. This would incorporate the more traditional histroical geology course
  
  
• Stratigraphy and sedimentology. Including sequence stratigraphy, facies modeling, nomenclature, history of stratigraphy and age dating.
  
  
• Field Geology: I have taught field courses for geology majors, which has required a familiarity with all aspects of field geology, from surveying techniques, to volcanology, stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology. In general these field courses have been concentrated in the western United States, especially Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, an area that I am partiularly familiar with. However, my field experience also includes Nova Scotia, the Appalachians, Baja California, northern California, China, the Caribbean, Britain, and Greece.
  
  
• Petroleum Geology. Drawing on my experience working for the oil industry

PALAEONTOLOGY.

• Invertebrate and Vertebrate Palaeontology. Both as a traditional course and in terms of palaeobiology and palaeoecology. Although I would want to avoid the rote learning of 100's of species, familarity with as many fossils as possible would be encouraged. In addition I would address the uses of palaeontology, especially how it can be used to understand modern issues such as conservation, biodiversity and global climate change.
  
  
• Palaeoecology, Palaeobiology, Palaeobiogeography, and Evolution.
  
  
• Taphonomy.
  
  
• Quantitative Palaeontology. The quantification of palaeontological patterns and trends has grown in importance over the past decade. This course would concentrate on ways of approaching common problems with palaeontological data and how to (and how not to) assess their significance using statistics. Important topics would include assessments of significance, calculating confidence limits, multivariate statistics (especially ordination and cluster analysis), and reasmpling techniques. It would also include guidelines on collecting and storing data.