Peter William Francis (1944–1999) was a British volcanologist specialising in the study of active volcanoes on both the Earth and other planets in the Solar System.

[2] He was also renowned for his ability as a communicator, reaching the general public in a series of popular and acclaimed books on his subject.

His doctoral thesis investigated the structural geology of Barra, Lewis and Harris in the Hebrides, Scotland.

Fieldwork in 1982 at Cerro Galán, in the remote northwest of Argentina, which involved the support of both UK and Argentine armed forces, was the last co-operation between the two countries before the Falkland Islands / Las Malvinas conflict later that year.

He was visiting scholar at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas, and subsequently as a Visiting Professor in the Planetary Geosciences Division of the University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii, he were followed in 1991 by a return to the Open University, where he was Director of Teaching from 1996 and Professor of Volcanology from 1998.