FELS Inaugural Lecture with Professor Tom Gernon Event

Time:

3:30pm

Date:

2026-04-22 15:30:00

Venue:

University of Southampton, Centenary Building (100), University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

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Event details

This is the fifth Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences Inaugural Lecture in our 2025-26 series that celebrates the careers of our newly appointed Professors. On Wednesday 22nd April 2026, Professor Tom Gernon from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Professor Mark Chapman from the School of Biological Sciences will present their research. Details of both lectures are available via the booking link.

Professor Tom Gernon

Mantle Waves: The Great Disrupter of Diamonds and Continents

When continents tear apart, hot mantle wells upward to fill the gap. This buoyant mantle current brushes against the relatively cold base of the continent, cools, and sinks—generating a slow swirling circulation reminiscent of a lava lamp. This process sets in motion a remarkable chain of events with far-reaching consequences for the Earth system. In this lecture, I’ll describe the discovery of a previously unrecognised phenomenon: large-scale sweeping disturbances, triggered by this circulation, that tumble in slow-motion beneath continents for hundreds of millions of years. The journal Science named these features “mantle waves”. Mantle waves trigger extraordinary migrating pulses of diamond-rich volcanism, systematically re-sculpt continental landscapes, and sweep away tens of kilometres of the billion-year-old roots of continents. This lecture tells the story of how this discovery unfolded over two decades, starting in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa.

Biography

Tom Gernon obtained his BSc (Hons) in Geology from University College Dublin (First-Class Honours) and completed his PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, funded by De Beers and the Diamond Trading Company. His doctoral research took him to diamond mines across Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa.

He subsequently held a postdoctoral position at the University of Bristol (2007–2008), conducting fieldwork across the tundra of Arctic Canada. In recognition of this work, he received the President’s Award of the Geological Society of London. After serving as Lecturer in Geology at Trinity College Dublin (2008–2009), he joined the University of Southampton as Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Earth Science. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016 and to Professor in 2023.

Since 2025, he has been a Visiting Professor at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. He was named a Turing Fellow in 2018 and again in 2021. His pioneering research has attracted an $8 million grant from a US-based philanthropic foundation.

Gernon has authored or co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals, including Nature and Science, and has delivered over 75 invited lectures at conferences, workshops, seminars, and public events worldwide. He led the discovery of mantle waves, recognised as one of the world’s top ten Breakthroughs of the Year in 2024 by Science magazine. Science described this work as “a compelling addendum to the theory of plate tectonics.” His scientific discoveries have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC.