George Gehrels grew up in Tucson and completed his BS in Geosciences here at the University of Arizona. He then completed a MS at the University of Southern California and PhD at Caltech, and was very fortunate to be able to return to the University of Arizona as an Assistant Professor in 1985.

George's research activities have focused on using geochronology to reconstruct the geologic evolution of many different regions of the world. This has been an exciting area of research given the nexus of technological advances that provide more precise and accurate information about the timing of events and processes in Earth history, breakthroughs in understanding how the Earth system works. Moreover, the research has affirmed the realization that predicting how our world will change in the future depends on understanding how it evolved in the past. Fundamental to making progress in these research endeavors have been the amazing students, post-docs, and faculty colleagues here in the Department of Geosciences. In terms of education, Dr. Gehrels especially enjoys teaching large sections of General Education courses, watching "the lights come on" as students begin to appreciate the beauty and complexity of our natural world.