Simon George was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in geology from St Andrews University in Scotland in 1985 and then worked as a mudlogger. He obtained his PhD (1990) in organic geochemistry at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, for his work on the influence of igneous activity on petroleum generation and accumulation. From 1991–2006 he worked for CSIRO in Sydney, Australia. When he left he was a Senior Principal Research Scientist leading research in organic geochemistry. He moved to Macquarie University in 2006, where he was Professor of organic geochemistry, working especially on research areas to do with the geochemical record of the early evolution of life, astrobiology, marine geoscience, and bioremediation of fuel spills. In 2014–2015 he was the Head of Department, Earth and Planetary Sciences, from 2020-2021 he was the Head of Department, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and from 2015-2019 he was the Director of the Macquarie University Marine Research Centre. He is now a Professor Emeritus at Macquarie University, and he is also a Visiting Professor at Jilin University and at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, China. He has held 12 ARC grants, and has written 183 peer-reviewed publications with >7000 citations. He has been the principal supervisor of over 30 PhDs, Masters and Honour students.