John Guest

John Edward Guest (6 December 1938 – 19 May 2012), was a British volcanologist and planetary scientist.

Education and family Guest was born in London, England. He studied at University College London (UCL) and he graduated there in 1962. He and Mary Guest, his wife, had two sons, Ben and James

Career Guest remained as an employee of his alma mater for the remainder of his career. He worked on his PhD under Sydney Ewart Hollingworth on the subject of tertiary ignimbrites in the Chilean Andes, where Hollingworth had been mapping the geology. In 1999, he moved from the UCL observatory to the Department of Geological Sciences.

As a story-teller, educator and colleague, he was an inspiration to generations of students and considered his role more as a vocation than a job. He was fond of practical jokes; he duped his students into believing in rats occupying lava tubes and that the principal danger to be encountered while working amongst rope-like Hawaiian pahoehoe lavas was a poisonous snake. He had a talent for interpreting geology from morphology, even from photographs. Very inquisitive, he was fascinated by the international cultures and customs he encountered on his travels.

He died at home in Church Stretton, Shropshire.

Awards G K Gilbert Award from the Geological Society of America, 1991