Michael (Mike) Paul Searle is a British geologist best known for his studies of the large-scale structure of mountain belts, including the Himalaya and Karakoram mountains. Searle was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2008.[1]
Searle studied geology at Aberystwyth University, graduating in 1975. He then undertook a Ph.D. at the Open University, working on the Samail Ophiolite in Oman, under the supervision of Ian Gass.[2] After completing his doctoral thesis in 1980, Searle undertook research at the University of Newfoundland, University of Leicester, and University of Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford in 1996.[3]
Over the course of his career, Searle has carried out geological field studies in many parts of the world, including Scotland, parts of the Arabian peninsula, and south-east Asia. In the course of his work he has written several books and made appearances in a number of documentary film series, including "How the Earth Was Made" (2010)[4] and "World's Greatest Mountains" (2018).[5]
Searle is an experienced climber, and he participated in a number of expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s. He visited the Kulu Himalaya in 1978, and led the British Langtang expedition in 1980[6] and the British Hispar Karakoram expedition in 1989.[7]