Rate My Professor Dave Craw

Emeritus Professor Dave Craw is a distinguished geologist in the Sciences Division at the University of Otago, with expertise in economic geology. He earned a BSc and PhD from the University of Otago and an MSc from the University of Calgary. As a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (FRSNZ), Craw has built a prolific career at Otago, contributing to environmental geology and economic geology. His research centers on vein and placer gold deposits, structure and mineralization in southern New Zealand, fluid flow in orogenic belts, mountain landform development through plate tectonics, and the carbon cycle in mountain building. Craw's interdisciplinary collaborations span geology, zoology, chemistry, and environmental science, elucidating connections between tectonic processes, landscape evolution, mineral deposit formation, metal mobility in the environment, mine restoration, and biological evolution.

Craw has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, achieving substantial academic impact with thousands of citations. Key contributions include "Erosion, Himalayan geodynamics, and the geomorphology of metamorphism" (Zeitler et al., 2001, GSA Today, 647 citations), "Sources of metals and fluids in orogenic gold deposits: insights from the Otago and Alpine Schists, New Zealand" (Pitcairn et al., 2006, Economic Geology, 509 citations), "Climatic and tectonic controls on chemical weathering in the New Zealand Southern Alps" (Jacobson et al., 2003, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 325 citations), "The geomicrobiology of gold" (Reith et al., 2007, ISME Journal, 301 citations), and "Goodbye Gondwana? New Zealand biogeography, geology, and the problem of circularity" (Waters & Craw, 2006, Systematic Biology, 258 citations). His applied research supports mining economics, environmental management, and initiatives like the South Island Precious Metals programme and the Centre for Minerals Environmental Research. In 2018, Craw received the University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal, the highest research honor at the institution, accompanied by a public lecture highlighting his applied impact. He remains active, publishing recent works such as "Aeolian and biogeochemical transformations of detrital gold morphology" (Palmer & Craw, 2026, New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics) and "Geological processes shaping freshwater biodiversity" (Waters et al., 2026, Biological Reviews).