David Pollard is the Morris Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. He received a B.A. from Pomona College in 1965, a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1969, and a D.I.C from Imperial College, London, in 1969. From 1974 to 1983 he was a Project Chief with U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA. He then moved back to Stanford where he and his students have focused their research on rock fracturing and faulting using geological field data, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling based on continuum and fracture mechanics. His 2005 textbook, Fundamentals of Structural Geology, published by Cambridge University Press describes this integrated and quantitative approach to the subject.
