David French is an Adjunct Associate Professor within the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He received his BA from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, and his PhD in igneous petrology from Newcastle University, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Initially he was an exploration and mining geologist for base and precious metals and industrial minerals. Subsequently, he was a research associate involved in a study of Australian oil shales followed by a period as a manager of a coal trace element geochemistry and mineralogy laboratory section. David then joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, initially applying advanced mineralogical techniques to ore formation research, then to studies of coal geochemistry, mineralogy, and coal utilization by-products. Since 2014 he has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales continuing his research interest. He has published over 130 papers and numerous research reports.
