He received his
Bachelor of Science degree in 1963 and his
Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1966, both from the
University of Glasgow. Napier is a professional astronomer who has worked at the
Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, the
University of Oxford and
Armagh Observatory. He is currently an honorary professor of
Astrobiology in the Center for Astrobiology at
Cardiff University, which describes him as "a leading figure in the dynamics and physics of comets, and a pioneer of the modern versions of
catastrophism." And honorary professor at the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology,
University of Buckingham, which describes him as, "a pioneer of modern studies of the impact hazard due to asteroids and comets," and also as having, "carried out an investigation of long-running claims of anomalous
QSO/galaxy associations." His research work focuses on
comets and
cosmology. The result of his collaboration with
Victor Clube and others on the role of giant comets in Earth history is known as "
coherent catastrophism." According to Napier, 13,000 years ago the earth was affected by a
major, rapid cooling event that caused the extinction of a large number of species and a major disruption of
paleoindian cultures. Napier argues for the
Younger Dryas impact hypothesis that the cooling event was caused by the collision with "a dense trail of material from a large disintegrating comet," {{Cite journal. He is a member of the
Comet Research Group, which raises money for, and conducts research in this area as well as biblical archaeology. ==Selected bibliography==