Maxim Samson is an independent researcher, specialising in cultural geography and geography of religion. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Leeds and has researched, taught and presented keynote lectures at universities the United Kingdom, United States and Indonesia. Prior to his current role as geography teacher and head of EPQ, he worked for seven years as an award-winning adjunct professor at DePaul University in Chicago, where he additionally chaired an international research group and served as associate editor of a peer-reviewed academic journal. He is the author of Invisible Lines and Earth Shapers.