Professor Conall Mac Niocaill

Conall Mac Niocaill is a Fellow in Earth Sciences at Exeter College and a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences.  He has previously served as Tutor for Undergraduate Admissions at Exeter College and as admissions coordinator at departmental level.  He obtained his PhD in Geology and Geophysics from the National University of Ireland, and studied and worked in France, Norway, and the United States before coming to Oxford as an EU Marie Curie Research fellow, and subsequently joining the faculty in 1998.  He has been the recipient of a University teaching award in 2007 as well as the 2013 OUSU prize for “Most Acclaimed Lecturer” in the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division.  He was part of the “Opportunity Oxford” team that received a Vice-Chancellors award for Academic Excellence in 2022.

Conall’s research interests encompass a broad variety of topics that centre on the large-scale evolution of the Earth.  He has worked on reconstructions of the motion of the continents and plates in deep time, the large-scale evolution of mountain-belts, understanding the causes and triggers of major episodes of environmental change in the Earth’s history, and the long-term behaviour of the Earth’s magnetic field.