John Barlow completed his BSc (hons) and MES at Wilfrid Laurier University. His honours and masters theses focused on mass movements along the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario. John received his PhD from the University of Calgary for research into the automated detection of rapid mass movements using digital data. Upon completion of his doctoral research, John did post doctoral work at both the University of Saskatchewan and Durham University. He joined the University of Sussex as Lecturer in Applied Geomorphology in 2011.