Geoffrey Neuss has over forty years experience of the IB Diploma programme, and in an in-depth, ongoing familiarity with how the IB functions. He has a Ph.D. in organometallic Chemistry from Manchester University.
Geoff was Head of Science at Atlantic College (the founding college of the United World College movement) and also taught Theory of Knowledge as well as SL and HL IB Diploma Chemistry. The UWC philosophy is very much based on educating the whole person and giving service to the local community.
He has been heavily involved with the IB since he first started teaching the programme in 1981. Initially he taught HL Chemistry and SL Applied Chemistry and was a senior examiner in Applied Chemistry for many years before the programme got subsumed into Chemistry in 1996. Since then he has been Deputy Chief Examiner for IB Chemistry and written many of the IB Chemistry examinations. He was actively involved many of the Chemistry curriculum reviews (for first examinations in 1998, 2003, 2009 and 2025) and is the author of the first IB book (the study guide) in any subject to be published by a mainstream reputable publisher - Oxford University Press as well as the IB-endorsed Chemistry Course Companion. He has led over 100 IB workshops around the world. These are for teachers new to the IB (Category 1) or experienced IB teachers (Categories 2 and 3) and are mainly in Chemistry but he also leads workshops for Extended Essays (in all subjects), Theory of Knowledge and Training New Workshop Leaders. He has also been a Programme Field Representative where he represented the IB and observed workshops in all subjects to find and pass on to other workshop leaders examples of good practice. He has visited schools in many different parts of the world to run short workshops and seminars for both staff and students and acted as an advisor to twenty new specialist trilingual schools in Kazakhstan (the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools) on their curricula with regard to content and compatibility with international standards.
Geoff brings another dimension to the IB as he has also experienced it through the eyes of a parent. His children all took (and passed!) the IB Diploma. His son Ben has a passionate interest in photographing wild animals in the wild and has his own Website (well worth a visit!) dedicated to this. His daughter Sorrel is an international journalist who has worked in China and Kyrgyzstan. His wife, Chris, worked until recently as the Head of the Student Advice Centre at the University of Swansea in the U.K.
During his time at Atlantic College he led International mountaineering expeditions to Sikkim and Bhutan where the group climbed several mountains and also made a study of a local yak-herding family who lived on their own in one remote valley in Bhutan. These expeditions had the official backing and approval of the Royal Geographical Society. Geoff's main passion in life is mountaineering and he has been an active rock climber for the past forty years climbing on many of the well known cliffs and outcrops in Britain as well as in Norway, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Africa, the Andes and the Himalayas. He is a full elected member of the Alpine Club - the oldest mountaineering club in the world.
Geoff also has direct experience of other educational systems. As well as teaching A Level in North Yorkshire, U.K. he has been the Chairman of Governors of a British Comprehensive School (where they teach A Levels) near where he lives in Wales. He was also the British Chief Examiner (Subject 'Expert') in Chemistry for the European Baccalaureate which is based in Brussels - a post he held for twenty six years.
When 'getting a life' apart from the IB and teaching, and when he is not to be found on the mountains, Geoff rides his 865 cc Triumph Bonneville T100 motorbike.