Stuart Monro

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Professor Stuart Monro
Stuart Monro at Siccar Point, May 2007
Born	3 March 1947 (1947-03-03) (age 61) Aberdeen, Scotland
Nationality	British

Stuart Kinnaird Monro OBE, FGS, FHEA, FRSSA (born March 3, 1947) is a prominent Scottish geologist and science communicator.

Monro graduated in Geology from Aberdeen University in 1970 and then received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh while embarking upon a lengthy career with the British Geological Survey, making a number of distinguished contributions to the understanding of the geology of central Scotland and the application of geology to environmental issues.

He was instrumental in establishing Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, the science centre and visitor attraction which opened in 1999 as a major Millennium Project that serves to facilitate a better public understanding of the processes that have shaped the earth. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts in 1998, and served as President of that Society from 2002 until 2005. He also served as President of the Westmorland Geological Society (1994-2005) and of the Edinburgh Geological Society (2005-2007). He has been co-Convenor of the Scottish Earth Science Education Forum since 2003, a voluntary group he helped establish to support a greater understanding of earth sciences in Scottish schools and colleges and chairs the Earth Science Trust. Also in 2003 he was appointed by Scottish Ministers to serve on the Scottish Science Advisory Committee, a national forum which provides strategic advice to the Scottish Government on scientific issues. He is presently Independent Co-chair of this committee. He took up the post of Scientific Director at Our Dynamic Earth on a permanent basis from the British Geological Survey in 2004 and, since that year, has also served as a Non-Executive Director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and on the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young People’s Committee. He is also honorary geological adviser to the John Muir Trust.

Monro has been a part-time tutor in Earth Sciences at the Open University since 1982 and, since 1990, has served on the Open University’s Senate, and Council from 1994 to 2002. In 2005 he was appointed by Scottish Ministers to act as a Trustee of the National Museums of Scotland and made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh (School of Geosciences). From September 2007, he has also served as a member of the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed a Visiting Professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh in February 2008.

Monro is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society. He was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to science in HM Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honours list, announced on 30 December 2006.