Philip England received a BSc in Physics from the University of Bristol and a DPhil in Geology from the University of Oxford. He spent four years in Cambridge and six years at Harvard before returning to Oxford in 1986. He was elected to the Chair of Geology in Oxford in 2000, and was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences from 2004 to 2011.

His research interests lie principally in the search for simplicity in geological processes. He has concentrated on the deformation of the continents, showing that, in contrast to the rigid oceanic plates, they behave as highly viscous fluids.