Academic and television presenter. Born in East Kilbride (South Lanarkshire), Stewart studied geography and geology at the University of Strathclyde, followed by a doctorate in geology at the University of Bristol. He gained his first academic position with the West London Institute of Higher Education, which became part of Brunel University in 1995. He spent a year as an honorary researcher at the University of Glasgow, while developing various media projects. In 2004, he was appointed to the University of Plymouth, where he now serves as Professor of Geoscience Communication. He took a four year secondment to serve as El Hassan bin Talal Research Professor in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society in Jordan.
Stewart's television work includes Journeys From The Centre Of The Earth (2005), Journeys into the Ring of Fire (2006), Earth - The Power of the Planet (2007), Making Scotland's Landscape (2010), Men of Rock (2011) and How to Grow a Planet (2012), all for the BBC. He has also worked in radio and published popular and academic books, academic papers and several articles for newspapers.
In 2012, Stewart was appointed as the President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and awarded an MBE the following year. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Glasgow in 2014 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017. He has a species of ant named in his honour; Cerapachys iainstewarti.
