John Clague is a leading authority in environmental earth sciences and climate change. He has made major contributions in geologic mapping, engineering and environmental interpretations of surficial geological information, and understanding natural hazards and risk. He is noted for local, national, and international research collaboration with geologists, geographers, biologists, and physicists. Clague has performed innovative research on the landslide, earthquake, tsunami hazards in British Columbia; his work has been a catalyst for earthquake research carried out by government, university, and private-sector scientists in Canada.