An interest in mineralogy (and many other aspects of the natural world) dates back to early days, age about 7, tramping across the Yorkshire Dales.

As a teenager in Leeds, I was inspired by two spectacular specimens (a huge Silverband baryte and a large blue Caldbeck linarite crystal on quartz druse) encountered in a small shop in the Merrion Centre, priced at a few pounds each. Ted and Mary Smithson of Bardsey Bank Top would take me out collecting in the Dales. I also collected in Cumbria and Durham, and as a teenager wandering the US and Mexico by Greyhound bus brought back some fine Chihuahua wulfenites, fluorites and rhodochrosites. The Silverband baryte and Caldbeck linarite, along with the Mexican minerals and a suite of other treasures (Welsh brookite, Cornish liroconite and so on) were lost along the way (left with a pair of friendly dealers, Don and Wally, and never retrieved - I had been feeling weighed down with worldly possessions). Perhaps I should have kept hold of those!

These days, my main mineralogical interests are:

1) the minerals of northern England, in part due to the family connection with the Westgarth Forsters (Westgarth the elder, 1738-1797, was my great-great-great-great grandfather);

2) crystallography and the phenomenon of crystal twinning (http://www.pbase.com/hajar/crystal_twins); and

3) the historical context of knowledge about mineralogy and the early days of collecting (the collections include a good number of specimens and books from the late 18th and early 19th century). I started the Antique and Historic Minerals group on Facebook to facilitate knowledge sharing in this area.


The story behind the Northern England collection can be found here: http://www.pbase.com/hajar/british_minerals

A blog on Westgarth Forster and the northern England minerals can be found here: http://westgarthforster.blogspot.com/?view=magazine

I would highlight the stories on the 1818 green fluorites from Middlehope Shields (http://westgarthforster.blogspot.com/2014/11/glorious-green-fluorite-from-middlehope.html?view=magazine ); the 1888 find of Egremont calcite twins (http://westgarthforster.blogspot.com/2014/11/classic-cumbrian-calcite-twins.html?view=magazine ); and the Allenheads fluorites (http://westgarthforster.blogspot.com/2014/11/westgarth-forster-and-allenheads-mine.html?view=magazine)

My photographs of minerals appear in several magazines and books (e.g. Mineralogical Record, Lapis, Extra Lapis, Gold occurrences in the UK).

Most recently, I have been enjoying various adventures in microtomography, including imaging of micro inclusions in faden garnets. I've been using Drishti for rendering and segmenting, Drishti and Meshlab for meshes and Cura for slicing.

Beyond mineralogy, several new species of animal are named for me (Burmacyrtus rusmithi, Nectocotis rusmithi, Rusmithia gorochovi and the tribe Rusmithini, and Boreopeltis smithi). Many other exceptionally preserved specimens from the palaeontology collections appear in a series of research publications (in journals and books) and new species descriptions (including Anglopterum magnificum, Meniscopsia beebei, Scolytonema dominicana, and Dakorhachis thambus).

My main areas of academic research have been in sedimentology (focus on deepwater depositional systems), sedimentation and tectonics, and 3D computer modelling of subsurface geology across a range of scales and resolutions. There are also two publications on mineralogy (more to come) and several on palaeobiology (more to come): https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4lRf_i0AAAAJ&hl=en