Professor James Roberts is a senior lecturer in igneous and metamorphic petrology at the University of Pretoria (UP). He has been a UP staff member since 2007; he previously did contract teaching at the University, in 2006.

Prof Roberts holds a BSc (Hons) degree from Rhodes University, an MSc and a PhD in Geology from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a BA in History and Ancient History from the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Prior to joining UP in 2007, he worked for AngloGold Ashanti and Anglo American; he also worked as a researcher at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory.

Prof Roberts specialises in igneous and metamorphic petrology, though has published in a variety of fields, including ore geology and coal petrology. He has more than 25 publications to his name.

He describes the subject he studies as a “very academic aspect of geology”. “However, the rigorous training I give my postgraduate students allows them to apply their skills to a wide variety of industry applications.”

He has supervised more than 30 master’s students and eight doctoral students.

With the aid of a research grant, Prof Roberts is currently collaborating with a group of researchers from Texas Tech University in the US on a project that involves magnetite pipes in the upper zone of the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

He regards the C3-rating he received from the National Research Foundation (which was “based on eight years of hard work”) as a highlight.

In his spare time, Prof Roberts enjoys war-gaming, and has run his own martial arts school for 20 years.