Nigel John Cook, a British citizen, was born in 1960 and is based at the Natural History Museum (Geology) in Oslo, Norway. After receiving his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of London, he worked as postdoctoral researcher in Canada (1987-1990) and later (1991-1998) in Germany, where he also obtained his Habilitation. He joined the Geological Survey of Norway in 1998, serving as leader of the Mineral Resources Section until 2001. He joined the University of Oslo in 2004 as Assistant Professor and was awarded a full professorship in 2005.

His research interests span both mineralogy and ore deposit studies and he is particularly interested in using detailed mineralogical investigation at the micro- and nanoscopic scales to understand ore-forming processes. Field work has taken him to many parts of the world, but he has been most active in Scandinavia and Southeastern Europe, investigating massive sulphide, skarn and epithermal deposits. More recently, he has developed a number of research projects addressing mineral systematics, structures and, in particular, non-stoichiometric minerals.

Nigel has been Secretary General of IAGOD since 2000 and Editor-in-Chief of the IAGOD journal, ‘Ore Geology Reviews’ since 2003. He is currently also Chairman of the IMA Commission on Ore Mineralogy and leader of International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) project 486 (2004-2008) and non-permanent Associate Professor at the University of Turku, Finland. Nigel is the author of ca. 70 publications and more than 125 conference contributions on subjects ranging from nanoscale mineralogy to regional metallogenesis, and from platinum group elements to industrial minerals.