Derek Briggs is Professor of Palaeontology and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. He received his BA in Geology from Trinity College, Dublin, and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where he worked on the fossils of the Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. His major research interest is in the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossil biotas. This involves a range of approaches from experimental work on the factors controlling decay and fossilization, through studies of early diagenetic mineralization and organic preservation, to field work and description of a spectrum of extraordinary fossils.
