Daniel Gregory joined the Department of Earth Sciences at the St George campus in 2018. He specializes in economic geology and geochemistry, and his research applications extend to deciphering chemistry of ancient oceans and identifying controls on gold mineralization in sediment-hosted ore deposits. He uses micro- to nano-scale techniques to analyse trace element concentration and isotopic variation in minerals to interpret the environmental changes at the time of formation. His style of teaching emphasizes bridging the gap between academic research and industry advancements.

Professor Gregory uses a variety of teaching approaches to drive student-learning and to spark curiosity over course objectives. For example, he incorporates the use of a portable XRF, a common tool in the mining industry, to teach how hydrothermal fluids change rock chemistry through blind target exercises. He offers opportunities for his students to teach what they have learned through flipped classroom techniques and imperfect rock samples to identify gaps in learning and reasoning key concepts. Industry-level competitions, such as open data challenges, are often included in the course curriculum to encourage students to think beyond classroom applications. A major milestone achieved this past year is the development of an online field course which allowed students to complete a simulated field-based mapping excursion. While there are many upsides to in-person field-based learning, the online course offered new teaching angles and challenged students to think in the big data space and to assess the quality of field data in unknown terrains.