James Maxlow was born in Middlesbrough, England, in May 1949. His passion for geology was no doubt inherited from a family history of "ironstone workers" who supplied iron ore mined from the Eston Ironstone Mine to the foundries and steel rolling mills of Middlesbrough, England, during the early 1800s to mid-1900s. James immigrated to Australia with his parents in 1953 and grew up in Melbourne. He studied Civil Engineering at what was then Swinburne College but soon became disillusioned with engineering and redirected himself to geology at the then Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, graduating in 1971. During his research years, James met and communicated with many wonderful scientists from around the world, including Professor Samuel Warren Carey from Tasmania, the father of modern Earth Expansion, Jan Koziar from Poland, the first scientist to measure and calculate an ancient Earth radius using modern seafloor mapping, and the late Klaus Vogel from Germany, the father of modern small Earth modelling studies. It was during James's studies that Professor Carey recognized the potential of his research into tectonics. Carey then kindly "passed on his baton" to James in order to further his ongoing research into tectonics. James received his Master of Science in geology in 1995, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in 2002, from Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, with a letter of commendation from the university chancellor for his original and thought-provoking research.