Professor John Townend was born and grew up within sight, sound, and smell of the Kuirau hot springs in Rotorua, New Zealand, and has always had an interest in how the Earth works.

His research focuses on earthquake mechanics, fault zone structure and hydrology, the tectonic stress field, and the detection and analysis of small earthquakes. Most of Professor Townend’s current work is concentrated on the Alpine Fault, the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, and geothermal systems in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, but he has previously worked on projects in California, Iceland, Japan and South Korea.

Professor Townend has been the principal investigator in five projects funded by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and an associate investigator in a further four projects. He is currently co-leading a Marsden-funded study of Alpine Fault earthquakes using data recorded by the Southern Alps Long Skinny Array (SALSA) and a Royal Society Te Apārangi-funded project with Australian National University seismologists and TU Dortmund computer scientists on distributed acoustic sensing using dark telecommunications cables – the South Island Seismology at the Speed of Light Experiment (SISSLE).

Professor Townend is a Fellow/Ahurei of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and former President of the Seismological Society of America (SSA). He currently serves as Chair of the SSA Publications Committee and as a member of the Aotearoa Earthquake Science Advisory Panel (AESAP). Among other recent roles, he has served on the Earth Sciences and Astronomy Panel of the Marsden Fund, the Science Advisory Group of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), and the Technical Advisory Group of New Zealand’s National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM).

Professor Townend is a former Head of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences and former President of the New Zealand Geophysical Society.