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James Geikie was professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1882 to 1914, succeeding his brother Archibald Geikie in the chair. He had previously worked for the Geological Survey since 1861. His fame rests largely on his work on the ice ages of the Pleistocene epoch. He developed the hypothesis that there had been five interglacial periods between the ice ages. In his The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man (1874) he proposed that humanity had continued to inhabit Europe throughout the ice ages.

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University of Edinburgh, Information Services: James Geikie, Geology and History