Engineering & Environmental Geophysics

Nick RUSSILL BSc (Hons) FGS - Director

Nick founded TerraDat in 1992 with Rob McDonald.

Nick is qualified as an Exploration and Mining Geologist (Cardiff University). In 1993 Nick was the finalist for Wales in the Worldcom New Business Achievement Awards and in 1998 was awarded ” Young Welsh Entrepreneur of the Year”. Nick is an Honorary Lecturer at Cardiff University Department of Earth Sciences and a Vice President of Cardiff Business Club.

He is also a co-founder and Director of Terralogic ruggedized computing solutions and the popular weather forecasting websites Snow-Forecast.com / Meteo365.com

In the hours outside work, Nick can be found snowboarding, surfing or taking photographs for his growing portfolio of arctic landscapes and architechtural work, some of which can be viewed here.

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Rob McDONALD BSc (Hons) PhD FGS - Director

Rob co-founded TerraDat with Nick Russill after completing his Ph.D. in Cardiff researching Shallow High Resolution Seismic Reflection Applied To On-shore Quaternary Geology. This capability supports TerraDat’s more specialist contracts and often their services are required by other geophyscal companies. Rob is an Honorary Lecturer at Cardiff University Department of Earth Sciences.

Combination of Rob’s expertise in shallow seismic methods with Jon Willington’s on-going experience in oil industry QC and final stage data processing enables TerraDat to carry out a broad range of engineering, mineral exploration and shallow oil related seismic work. Rob has an interest in publishing work carried out by TerraDat and has jointly produced a diverse range of case studies and technical notes based on some of the novel findings generated by our contract projects.

Rob is also a Director of Terralogic and Snow-Forecast.com

Jonathan THOMAS BSc PhD FGS - Director

Jonathan joined Terradat in 1994 following the completion of his geophysical PhD. study of an estuarine environment. As both a director and principal geophysicist, Jonathan’s duties comprise the management of all scales of projects ranging from gas pipelines, road schemes, regional characterisation of nuclear sites down to local site investigations. He has extensive experience of the various aspects of consultancy and contracting, including the design of the geophysical survey, on-site data acquisition, quality control and the interpretation of multi-disciplinary geophysical data sets. Outside work, Jonathan is a keen cricketer who enjoys standing around for hours and chasing a little red ball.

Anna CICHELLA - Geophysicist

Anna joined TerraDat in January 2002 bringing with her extensive experience of seismic surveying of Mount Vesuvius.

Anna presently is based near Naples and manages our projects in Italy

Simon HUGHES BSc (Hons) PhD FGS - Geologist / Operations Manager

Simon joined TerraDat in March 2005 having returned to Cardiff after 10 years in Mexico and New York City. He completed his Ph.D. in volcanology at Cardiff University in 1995 and went on to do a Post-Doc at National University of Mexico, and research at the State University of New York, Buffalo, USA. His research interests are in pyroclastic rocks and the application of geophysical techniques to mapping and monitoring active volcanoes.

When not working, Simon loves hill walking and cooking.

Mark Harwood BSc (Hons) PhD FGS - Geophysicist

Mark joined us in January 2004 after completing his PhD at Cardiff University. His main interests are in geophysical characterisation and mapping of Quaternary deposits. His research background is in detailed field mapping and interpretation of sediments and he brings these skills into the core environmental, geotechnical and engineering areas of TerraDats work.Away from work, Mark plays drums with the Swansea-based band the Experimental Painters, grows vegetables and loves to go mountain walking. Listen to an interview with Mark from a recent job locating unexploded ordnance on Orkney

Matthew Butcher BSc (Hons) - Geophysicist

Matthew joined TerraDat in the summer of 2007 after studying geology at the University of Plymouth. During his four year Geology degree Matthew’s projects included Geological mapping of a Scottish island, structural mapping of the Bude formation in Cornwall and producing a Geodiversity report on the Tamar Valley, Devon/Cornwall.

When not at work Matthew enjoys exploring the country side through mountain biking, caving and climbing.

Antony Butcher BSc (Hons) MSc - Geophysicist

Antony joined Terradat in September 2004. After completing a BSc in Mathematics he went on to study Exploration Geophysics at the University of Leeds. As part of his MSc research he investigated the cause of subsidence in an area of abandoned shallow coal mines using different geophysical techniques.Outside work, Antony is a keen caver and has explored and discovered numerous caves in the UK and abroad. He is currently applying his geophysical expertise to cave exploration in order to assist in the discovery of new cave systems.

Brett Collins BEng (Hons) FGS - Geophysicist / Geologist

Brett joined TerraDat in November 2007 after returning to the UK following several years working in mineral exploration in the Arctic. Principally exploring for Fe-oxide Cu-Au in Sweden and magmatic Nickel in Finland, Brett employed a suite of geophysical methods as part of an integrated exploration programme with the large miner Anglo American. At TerraDat, He heads up the regional office based in Glasgow, Scotland, where he is establishing a field office that will enable a more hands-on project management on activities north of the border. Brett is a keen surfer, snowboarder, and hill walker, and can often be seen journeying through the Highlands in search of a decent slope or swell.

Richard Bowen BSc MSc - Applied Geophysicist

Richard has a background in applied environmental geophysics and joined the TerraDat team in 2001. He has extensive experience of electromagnetic sounding in Australia and undertakes more of Terradat’s overseas projects.

Christian Bird BSc (Hons) - Geologist

Christian joined TerraDat after graduating from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Science, Cardiff University in July 2003.

At TerraDat, Christian is particularly keen to integrate the RTK dGPS with other technologies.

Away from work, Christian likes canoeing, hiking, and playing guitar, but not always all at the same time!

Brian Critchley, Project Manager

Brian works as a sub-consultant to TerraDat drawing on his many years of experience working as a field geophysicst around the World.

He also offers a soils testing and sampling service under Talpa with Richard Bowen.

Brian is a keen walker and has an interest in rearing bantams.

Alex LEWIS BSc MSc, Senior Field Technician

Alex has a background in environmental engineering with a bias towards the use of applied geophysical methods which was the subject of his M.Sc. at Edinburgh. He has worked for TerraDat as a field scientist for six years and has travelled widely as a result.

Alex is a fanatical cave digger and explorer and real ale enthusiast. He had a walk on part as a German guard in the Channel 4 drama “The Welsh Great Escape” about an escape tunnel discovered by TerraDat.

Alessia Taboga - Geophysicist

Alessia is from Northern Italy and provides primarily geophysical technical skills for creating maps and manipulating data.She is a keen writer and painter and draws inspiration from the dismal South Wales weather and gloomy landscapes.

Robert DAVIES BSc PhD , Geophysicist, Software Development

Rob obtained his first degree in Exploration Geophysics at Cardiff and then went on to work on Remote Sensing of Tropical Forests with Prof. Paul Curren at his home town. Having completed that particular project he then returned to Geophysics and undertook a PhD at Oxford under the auspices of Dr Philip England and Dr Barry Parsons. His PhD subject involved the reoccupation of a 100 year old triangulation network across Greece and the Aegean using the Global Positioning System. These results have been used to calculate the deformation (strain) that has occurred from which seismic hazard has been estimated.

Rob is a Director of TerraDat’s associate company - snow-forecast.com

Dr. Nimat YASSI BSc MSc PhD

Dr. Yassi is our manager for the office in Australia. Her main interest is in geophysical applications for archaeology, engineering and environmental projects and is focusing on these areas to promote the benefit of TerraDat?s services in Australasia and the Far East.

Nimat has long experience in geophysical applications in Archaeology. She applied magnetic and resistivity techniques for locating archaeological sites. In her MSc research she successfully located the oldest library in Mesopotima (one of the oldest in the world). She utilised these techniques in many other sites. Her interest in Archaeology extended also to dating sites using archaeomagnetic properties. For her PhD degree she constructed magnetic variation curves for the archaeological time scale in Britain and Mesopotima. She managed to give accurate dates for many sites in the UK and the Middle East. She acted as the Head of Archaeological Laboratory in Iraq Museum for many years. She joined NWG Macintosh Center for Quaternary Dating, University of Sydney and was involved in Paleointensity and C14 time scale
calibration.