Her most significant book is Igneous Petrogenesis: A Global Tectonic Approach, published in 1989.
Wilson studied at St Hilda's College, Oxford and graduated with a first class BA in Geology in 1973, later converted to an MA.
[2][4] In 1998, Wilson was elected a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
[3][better source needed] In 2006, she received the Coke Medal from Geological Society of London.
[5] Wilson was married to Alastair Lumsden, previously Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.