Neil Phillips graduated in geoscience from the University of Melbourne (BSc) and Monash University (BSc Hons, PhD) where his thesis was on the metamorphism and geochemistry at Broken Hill, Australia. He subsequently completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. At the University of Western Australia, he co-founded the Archean Gold Group in 1980 with David Groves as they pioneered many of the geological principles used in gold exploration today. Two years were then spent engaged in underground mapping of the Golden Mile in the Kalgoorlie goldfield. He joined the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and established research projects at all the operating Witwatersrand gold mines and continues that research focus and interest today. He was subsequently Professor of Economic Geology at James Cook University where he developed the extended field programs in the Cloncurry – Mt. Isa region. As a consultant in Kalgoorlie for Minsaco Resources and then General Manager for Great Central Mines, he led the geological development of the Yandal gold province north of Kalgoorlie in a role that included teaching, research, and mentoring with teams of mine and exploration geologists. Honorary professorial appointments at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and Stellenbosch University in South Africa have involved collaborative research, valorisation of this research through community engagement, and leadership of the Melbourne Geology of Gold course since 1995 and a similar course on gold in South Africa. Neil was editor of the Applied Earth Science journal for ten years from 2010, regularly publishes in scientific journals, and has written and edited several books on geoscience and cross-country navigation. He was President of the International Rogaining Federation 1989-2013 and co-author of three books on the sport of rogaining. Neil was editor of the AusIMM Australian Ore Deposit monograph in 2017 leading 350 authors and reviewers in a volume describing 200 mineral deposits.