Niall Paterson

Research Geologist

Contact: [email protected]

Niall Paterson is a palynologist and stratigrapher with over 20 years’ research experience applying biostratigraphy and integrated stratigraphic methods to basin analysis, correlation, and subsurface characterisation across exploration and geoenergy themes. He specialises in Permian–Triassic palynostratigraphy, with particular expertise in Triassic successions of the North Sea–North Atlantic–Arctic region. His work focuses on building robust, transferable stratigraphic frameworks that improve age control, strengthen well correlation, and support reservoir prediction, seal assessment and CO₂ storage site evaluation.

Niall received a first-class BSc (Hons) in Earth Science from the University of Glasgow (2005) and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (2009) on Devonian–Carboniferous palynostratigraphy of the Appalachian Basin (USA). He joined ExxonMobil in 2009 as a Senior Geologist in the Houston Biostratigraphy Group. He subsequently held industry-sponsored postdoctoral positions at the University of Bergen (2013–2019), including research on Triassic palynology of the Norwegian Arctic and source-to-sink dynamics of lower Mesozoic stratigraphy in the Greater Barents Sea Basin.

At CASP (since 2019), Niall leads and supports projects integrating palynology with sedimentology, wireline logs, geochemistry, and cyclostratigraphic approaches to deliver high-resolution correlation frameworks and basin-scale stratigraphic synthesis. He has extensive experience working with core and cuttings datasets, documenting key palynomorph taxa and assemblage trends, erecting reference sections and biozonations, and communicating stratigraphic uncertainty for multi-disciplinary subsurface teams.

He has contributed to the wider palynological community through long-standing service to AASP – The Palynological Society, including as President (2021–2023), and has served on the ICS Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy working group on the Carnian–Norian boundary.

Latest Publications

• Latitude affects continental acidity in the Smithian–Spathian boundary biotic crisis
• Volcanogenic mercury and plant mutagenesis during the end-Permian mass extinction: Palaeoecological perturbation in northern Pangaea
• The age of the first pulse of continental rifting associated with the breakup of Pangea in Southwest Iberia: new palynological evidence
• The case for the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Norian stage