I live in Butte, Montana USA - the banner photo is Sherman Butte, a hydrothermal fluorite-barite locality just west of Butte on the bike trail I ride frequently (this was Mindat Photo of the Day for 13th Jun 2025). My first real geological job was analyzing the mineralogy of 20,000 kidney stones. Then I became a gravity & magnetics geophysicist in the oil business. Taught mineralogy labs in college, and 14 summers of field geology at Indiana University Geologic Field Station in Montana. Mineral & fossil collector since forever; recently focusing more on microminerals. In 1974 I co-founded the Tobacco Root Geological Society (Northern Rockies of the USA) which is still going strong.

In 2011 I wrote and published a book, "What Things Are Made Of," about the mineralogy and geology behind everyday things and global interdependency on mineral resources. In 2014, I turned my History of the Earth Perpetual Calendar book into a 366-day podcast, and in 2019 I put together a booklet, "Butte Rocks," about the geology and mineralogy of Butte for laypersons.

Beginning in November 2023 I published a thrice weekly newsletter on minerals and geology on Substack, titled The Geologic Column.