He has had broad research output, focused in the last 20 years on environmental geochemistry. He is also employed in petrographic and environmental consultancy work for the minerals industry and government agencies. Wider interests in recent years have included the relationship between geological processes and other natural sciences in diverse “wild places” in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Iceland, the Himalayas, the North American cordillera and South America (Patagonia and the Atacama Desert), with Gondwana connections being of particular interest.