Professor Allan Chivas is a geologist and a geochemist who has made substantial contributions to the understanding of Earth-surface processes at the younger end of the geological time scale. The bulk of his research has been described as ‘chemical sedimentology’ with necessary additional strands drawn from biological and physical sciences, and some of his work has related to atmospheric and mantle processes. In several areas, his work has defined new geochemical and isotopic tools and methodologies, both conceptually and by advances in analytical methods, which are now widely applied worldwide.