Dr. David B. Prior

Dr. Prior is Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas System. He has also joined the faculty of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to UT, Dr. Prior served as Dean, Interim provost and Executive Vice President of the Department of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. He joined the College of Geosciences faculty in 1996, holding professorships in geology, geophysics and oceanography, and served as deputy dean of geosciences and maritime studies. He has also served as director of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography's Atlantic Geoscience Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As one of the directors of the Geological Survey of Canada, he was responsible for the Canadian government's Coastal and Marine Geosciences Program.

Dr. Prior is noted for his work in sea floor geological hazards and constraints to coastal and offshore development, as well as his research on river deltas and continental slopes. Completing field work in many of the world's major oceans and seas, he is an acknowledged leader in the study of underwater landslides. Dr. Prior has worked for more than 20 years with the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico, on mudslide hazards in the Mississippi delta and in helping to pioneer the practice of deep water hazard surveys and geologic data interpretation.