Ben A. van der Pluijm is Professor of Geological Sciences and Professor of the Environment at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is (co-)author of more than 120 research articles and editor/board member of several international journals. His research focuses on brittle and ductile faults, crustal architecture of collisional belts, intraplate deformation, microstructures and textures, and geochronology, with main field areas in North America, South America and Europe. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in Geological Sciences, he coordinates Michigan’s interdisciplinary Global Change Curriculum and is involved with various technology-supported educational initiatives.