Professor Andrew Goudie was Professor and Head of Department of Geography at Oxford University. A distinguished physical geographer, he was awarded a DSc by Oxford University, received a Royal Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, the Prize of the Royal Belgian Academy, the British Society for Geomorphology's David Linton Award (2009) and the Geological Society of America's Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Research. He has been President of the Oxford University Development Programme, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University, and Delegate of Oxford University Press. He has been President of the Geographical Association, President of Section E of the British Association and Chairman of the British Geomorphological Research Group. Professor Goudie became Master of St Cross College, Oxford, in October 2003, and continues to lecture at Oxford University Centre for the Environment. Since 2005 he has been President of the International Association of Geomorphologists. In addition to being author of nearly 200 scientific papers, he is the author or co-author of the following books (amongst others): The Human Impact, The Nature of the Environment, Environmental Change, The Encyclopedia of Global Change, Geomorphology of Deserts, Geomorphological Techniques, Chemical Sediments and Geomorphology, The Geomorphology of England and Wales, The Warm Desert Environment, Discovering Landscape in England and Wales, Landshapes, The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physical Geography, Desert Geomorphology, The Student's Companion to Geography, The Physical Geography of Africa, The Earth Transformed, Aeolian Environments, Sediments and Landforms, The Encyclopedia of Geomorphology, Global Environments through the Quaternary, The Oxford Companion to Global Change and Wheels across the Desert.

Thomas is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield.