John Nicholas Ludden CBE FRSE is a British geologist, with expertise in igneous petrology and geochemistry.
He completed his doctoral thesis on the petrology of Piton de la Fournaise volcano, Reunion Island, under the supervision of W.J.
[2] After completing his PhD, Ludden went to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US as a post-doctoral research fellow.
In 1984, Ludden was promoted to professor of geochemistry, and was research leader for a part of the Canadian Lithoprobe project, with a focus on the precambrian geology of the Abitibi greenstone belt.
[3] In 2006, Ludden was appointed Director of the British Geological Survey, succeeding David Falvey.