Cathles received his Ph.D. in geophysics from Princeton University in 1971, researched mineral and industrial processes at Kennecott Copper Corporation’s Ledgemont Laboratory in Massachusetts to 1978, massive sulfide deposits at the Pennsylvania State University to 1982, gold, sulfide, and CO¬2 at the Chevron’s California Oil Field Research Laboratory to1987, and multiphase flow dynamics, chemical alteration, and global resources at Cornell to now. He has received a number of awards, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Distinguished Lecturer of the Society of Economic Geologists in 2011. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed publications and a book titled “The Viscosity of the Earth’s Mantle”.