Roger Bilham obtained degrees in Physics and Geology at the University of Wales
and Ph. D. in Geophysics from Cambridge University in 1970. He undertook postdoctoral research in Cambridge and Columbia universities before being appointed a
Professor of Geology in the University of Colorado in 1986, where he is now an
Associate Director of CIRES (NOAA Cooperative Insitute for Research in the
Evironmental Sciences). His research (more than 150 scientific articles) is focussed
on quantifying the rates of tectonic motion at plate boundaries and the estimation of
seismic productivity in Pakistan and India. He was the first to note that most of the
world's supercities hosting more than 400 million people are located at plate
boundaries that have experienced historical M>7.5 earthquakes, and that a future
earthquake, were it to occur near one of these cities could possibly kill a million
people in a single event.