Bruce Edward Hobbs (born 23 October 1936) AO FAA FGSAust FTSE is an Australian structural geologist and science administrator. He is a research fellow of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and adjunct professor, University of Western Australia. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1991. He was appointed the first Chief Scientist of Western Australia in 2003 but resigned over fundamental differences with the Carpenter Government in 2006. Hobbs has popularly defined structural geology as the study of "the way in which rocks get buried and deformed and metamorphosed." Hobbs has described his research career as moving "from being very fine-scale, like microscopic or even electron microscopic, to the much larger scale of almost the whole Earth now, trying to understand what goes on within the Earth." His latter interest has been described as "developing computer applications that simulate mechanical behaviour, fluid flow, heat flow and chemical reactions governing ore body formation. The goal is to produce a predictive modelling capability that enhances our ability to discover new ore bodies." Early life and education Bruce Edward Hobbs was born 23 October 1936 in Sydney. He completed his secondary schooling at Newcastle Boys High School. He matriculated to the University of Sydney. He was graduated a Bachelor of Science in 1959. He presented his research thesis, Tectonic studies in the Central West of N.S.W. and was awarded his PhD in Science in 1964. Academic career Hobbs lectured in geology at the University of Sydney first as lecturer (196066) then as senior lecturer (1967). Between 1965 and 1967 he was Research Geologist at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California. He was a research Fellow in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, Australian National University, Canberra (196771). Between 1971 and 1972 he was Professor of Structural Geology, State University of New York. He returned to Australia to be the Foundation Professor of Geology and chair of the Department of Earth Sciences, Monash University (197284). He was a Member of the Australian Science and Technology Council (19771982). He spent fourteen months as visiting professor at Brown University in Rhode Island (19781979) and won a Fulbright Award in 1979 and spent six months as visiting professor at the University of California, Davis. He left full-time work as an academic to join the CSIRO in 1984 but, in 1987, accepted an offer of