Jeff Dobson

Jeff Dobson grew up in Canton, Georgia, about 50 miles north of Atlanta. He attended Emory University, Reinhardt College, the University of Georgia, and Western Carolina University. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Georgia. He served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. He was Officer of the Day at Naval Air Station New Orleans on Aug. 17, 1969, the day Hurricane Camille devastated the Gulf Coast. He subsequently taught Geography at Ohio State, the University of Illinois, and the University of Alaska. Jeff served several terms as an alderman in the town of Farragut, Tennessee. In his professional career, Jeff has conducted fieldwork in the Arctic regions of Europe and North America as well as deserts in the southwestern U.S. His business travels have taken him to more than 50 countries on six continents. He often travels in the Middle East.

Today Jeff heads a firm specializing in communications systems for multi-media collaboration among agencies during emergencies. He previously headed an international computer firm specializing in mission critical computing with customers in 40 countries on six continents. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and travels extensively. He has a wonderful wife Dana, two daughters Jennifer Moon and Noel Day, and five beautiful and fun loving grandchildren.

Jeff and his twin brother Jerry have collaborated on research about ancient sea levels since 1993. The Waters of Chaos is an outgrowth of their real world research into the physical and cultural evidence of global sea level rise that occurred at the end of the Ice Ages. Like Jared and Rick Caisson, Jerry and Jeff lived in the Knoxville, Tennessee area during the writing of The Waters of Chaos. While researching The Waters of Chaos, Jeff traveled worldwide including 2000 miles in Egypt, over 800 of that under armed guard. He was in Egypt for the desert floods described in the novel, and was stopped by a machine gun wielding Egyptian soldier just north of the Sudanese border at Foul Bay.

Jeff has bicycled across northern Sweden and northern Norway near the Arctic Circle. He enjoys winter backpacking. He has camped in temperatures as low as minus 55 degrees F. and in Feb., 2012 he celebrated his 67th birthday on Mt. Adams, NH, where he encountered winds of 70 mph and temperatures of minus 8 degrees F. (See video for a sample of conditions in the parking lot before departure.) He has kiyaked in the Andaman Sea and the Florida Keys. He has dune bashed in Dubai. He was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when Bob Dylan was booed for his electrified sound. In New Orleans in 1978, between the two Spinks fights, Jeff accidentally spilled 16 ounces of beer on Muhammad Ali.