He received a PhD at the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge in 1962, where he studied with Cecil Edgar Tilley.
[2] Cann's was appointed lecturer in the School of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1965.
He was promoted to Reader in 1973 but left shortly afterwards to become J B Simpson Professor of Geology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
[2] Whilst Professor at Leeds he also held a visiting position as an Adjunct Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States.
[3] In 1987 he instigated, and subsequently led, the Natural Environment Research Council's British Mid-Ocean Ridge Initiative (BRIDGE), a major UK investigation of the creation of the Earth's crust in the deep oceans.