Paul Tackley is Chair of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Group in the Institute of Geophysics, Department of Earth Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). He received an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MS and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology before taking up a position in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He became a full professor there before moving to ETH Zurich in 2005, where he currently teaches courses in geodynamic modeling. Professor Tackley's research involves applying large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulations using state of the art methods and parallel supercomputers to study the structure, dynamics and evolution of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. He has served as an associate editor for various journals and is on the editorial board of Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics.