Taras Gerya is Professor of Earth Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich). He is an expert in numerical geodynamic modelling, with his current research focusing on subduction and collision processes, ridge-transform oceanic spreading patterns, intrusion emplacement into the crust, generation of earthquakes, fluid and melt transport in the lithosphere, Precambrian geodynamics, formation of terrestrial planets and evolution of life. In 2008, he was awarded the Golden Owl Prize by ETH students for his teaching on continuum mechanics and numerical modelling.