Paul Younger was born in Hebburn (then in Co. Durham) on 1st November 1962. He obtained a First Class B.Sc. degree in Geology from Newcastle University in 1984, then spent two years at Oklahoma State University in the USA, gaining an M.Sc. degree in Hydrogeology in 1986. He returned to Newcastle University and in 1990 obtained a Ph.D. degree dealing with numerical modelling of water resource systems. He worked for Yorkshire Water, the National Rivers Authority and in Bolivia before developing an academic career at Newcastle University teaching and researching water and environmental engineering. One area in which he became expert was in the hydrogeological and pollution aspects of minewaters which brought him into contact with the Institute and led to him being President in 2003-2004. At Newcastle he established what is now the Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research and became director of the Institute for Sustainability. He was also a driving force behind the bid to make Newcastle a City of Science and Technology and led the pioneering research to drill for geothermal energy in the heart of the city.
In 2012 he moved to Glasgow University as Rankine Professor of Engineering, researching low-carbon energy, notably deep geothermal energy, underground coal gasification with carbon capture and storage, and hydropower. He took early retirement in March 2017.
Paul Younger died in April 2018.
He was a prolific author of research publications including
Younger, P.L., Banwart, S.A., Hedin, R.S. Mine Water – Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation Kluwer, 2002
Younger, P.L. ‘Making water’: the hydrogeological adventures of Britain’s early mining engineers in Mather, J.D. 200 years of British hydrogeology Geological Society, London, Special Publications v. 225, 2004 p.121-157
The Institute has a small archive of reports written by or collected by Prof Younger.
