Professor John Parkes elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

22 Dec 2011

Congratulations to Professor John Parkes who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his seminal work in geomicrobiology. He becomes the School’s second member of the Society, after Professor Dianne Edwards. Both are also members of the Learned Society of Wales.

Professor Parkes is an international leader in Geomicrobiology, focusing on quantifying sedimentary prokaryotic processes and indentifying the responsible organisms, their interactions and controls. In particular, Parkes has pioneered detection of micro-organisms in a range of sub-surface environments and demonstrated the significance of temperature increases during burial in sustaining prokaryotes over kilometre depths and in million year-old sediments, and in biosphere:geosphere interactions, including production of hydrocarbons and energy sources for deep bacteria. His research has been seminal in establishing sub-seafloor sediments as one of the largest prokaryotic habitats on Earth and this has resulted in major new initiatives in international research programmes.