Experience

Specialising in Carboniferous palynology and with more than 50 years combined industrial experience in applied biostratigraphy. We are committed to producing high-quality research as an ongoing pursuit to improve and refine our knowledge base.

Our Team

Duncan McLean

Duncan has an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Carboniferous palynology and more than 30 years industrial experience in applied biostratigraphy. He has provided consultancy analysis on over 600 Carboniferous well sections from around the world, including onshore Europe, USA, Canada, Algeria, Libya, the Barents Sea, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. This experience allowed Duncan to produce the standard miospore biozonation for the North Sea Carboniferous (McLean et al., 2005) and the Namurian of Great Britain (Owens et al., 2004) along with 29 other research papers.

Duncan’s biostratigraphical analysis of onshore borehole sections, numerous outcrops and the Carboniferous substage stratotypes in northern England is currently providing the basis for updating the standard miospore biozonation for the Carboniferous of Great Britain.

Duncan has also worked on over 50 well sections of Devonian, Permian and Triassic age from Libya, Canada, the Barents Sea, Colombia, China, South Africa, Australia, Botswana and Kazakhstan. Duncan also has consultancy and research interests in the stratigraphy and floral evolution of the non-marine Cretaceous of Mongolia and China.

Duncan is a corresponding member of the Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy and have sat as a member of the Permanent Committee of the International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian Stratigraphy. He served several terms as Secretary of the Palynology Group of The Micropalaeontological Society, and was the founding secretary of the Subcommission on Spores and Pollen of the Commission Internationale du Microflore du Paléozoïque. Duncan taught on the University of Sheffield M.Sc. course in Palynology for many years and supervised M.Sc. and Ph. D. research students. More recently, he has taught the Carboniferous palynology component of the M.Sc. in Applied and Petroleum Micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham and supervised M.Sc. research projects.

David Bodman

David has over 20 years experience working in the hydrocarbon industry. He has produced consultancy work on the palynostratigraphy for southern North Sea and onshore UK Carboniferous well sections and was involved in the development of a new miospore biozonation for the onshore UK Namurian (Owens et al., 2004). He has also worked on the Triassic of the intra-montane basins of the southern Alps. David manages the company’s laboratory facilities and has worked on palynological material from throughout the stratigraphic column from Europe, USA, Canada, South America, Africa, China, India, Australia and Antarctica.

David is employed by the University of Sheffield to manage the Palynology Research Facility laboratories. His responsibilities include providing advice to undergraduate and postgraduate students on palynological processing. Tailored training courses on laboratory management and techniques are given to technical staff of NOCs. David has an Honours Degree in Geological Sciences from the University of Leeds and a Masters Degree in Palynology from The University of Sheffield.