Christien Thiart is a South African with mathematical sciences degrees from the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town where she completed her PhD. She held various positions in the Western Cape from iometrician in the Department of Agriculture, to computer science teacher and lecturer in mathematical and statistical sciences. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town.

Christien Thiart thiart@stats.uct.ac.za 7

She has been a research fellow of the CIGCES (Centre for Graphical Computing of Earth Systems at UCT) since 1998, where she manages the geological GIS (Geographic Information Systems) database. She works extensively on mineral resource potential modeling and related projects over the continents of Gondwana. In AEON, she will play a central role in GIS-based research, the statistical analysis and modeling of Earth System resources, and data mining.