Prof. Scott A. Elias is a retired Professor of Quaternary Science at Royal Holloway, University of London, from 2000 to 2017. Before this, he was a Fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado from 1983 to 2000, where he earned his PhD in Environmental Biology. Elias has authored 226 publications. Since 2006, he has been Editor-in-Chief of three Elsevier encyclopaedias and co-editor-in-chief of four encyclopaedias and one comprehensive reference work. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Elsevier Reference Collection in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences.