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Biography


General career

  • Date and place of birth: 1939, Suva, Fiji
  • Nationality: Australian
  • BSc (Honours) degree in geology from Sydney University in 1962, with thesis on Silurian-Devonian sediments of Hill End Trough
  • Doctorate on Quaternary marine geology of Baltic Sea, from Kiel University in Germany in 1971
  • Forty three years (1962-2005) at Geoscience Australia and its predecessors (AGSO and BMR), largely with the rationale of assessing petroleum potential
    • Started as an onshore field geologist in 1963
    • Switched to marine geology and geophysics in the 1970s
    • Participated in forty-six marine geoscience expeditions on Australian and foreign vessels.
    • Pioneered the Australian use of multibeam-sonar swath mapping of the seabed for geological and other purposes
    • In South Pacific as UNDP Marine Geologist, 1980-81
    • Served on national and international committees including within the Ocean Drilling Program, and on the Science Advisory Committee for the Marine National Facility
    • Helped instigate and plan the change from the Australian research vessel Franklin to the more capable Southern Surveyor in the early 2000s
    • Developed wide links with French, German and US institutions, to the benefit of Australian marine geoscience
    • Wrote successful proposals for two Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) expeditions and participated in both, once as Co-Chief Scientist
  • Finished career at AGSO-GA as Senior Principal Research Scientist in charge of various groups of marine scientists and technicians in 2005
  • Continued research in marine geoscience at ANU
  • Helped lead the successful bid for Australia to join IODP through the ARC/LIEF mechanism in 2006-2007
  • Became Interim Head of Australian IODP in late 2007
  • Part-time Professorial position as Program Scientist in charge of the Australian IODP Office at ANU from mid-2008
  • Have produced eleven scientific books, monographs or special issues of journals, about 140 refereed scientific papers, and 45 major Geoscience Australia Records (reports)

 

Locations of major studies

Onshore Queensland (1963-1976)

  • Bowen Basin: mapping Permo-Triassic sequences
  • Northeast Eromanga Basin: mapping Jurassic-Cretaceous sequences
  • Surat Basin: mapping Jurassic-Cretaceous sequences

Foreign offshore (1969 – present)

  • Baltic Sea sedimentology and biota
  • Sulu Sea deepsea turbidites
  • Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) deepsea manganese nodule potential
  • Cook Islands deepsea manganese nodule potential
  • Solomon Islands geological framework and heat flow
  • New Ireland Basin (PNG) petroleum potential
  • New Caledonian Fairway Basin (Lord Howe Rise) petroleum potential

Australian offshore (1972 – present)

  • Cape Leeuwin Nodule Field deepsea manganese nodules
  • Christmas Island deepsea manganese nodules
  • Scott Plateau and Rowley Terrace petroleum potential
  • Exmouth Plateau petroleum potential, and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)
  • Bremer Basin petroleum potential
  • Otway Basin petroleum potential
  • West Tasmanian geological framework, including ODP
  • South Tasman Rise geological framework, including ODP
  • East Tasman Rise geological framework, including ODP
  • Kenn Plateau geological framework
  • Mellish Rise geological framework
  • Fairway Basin geological framework and petroleum potential (Lord Howe Rise)

 

Employment History

  • Program Scientist, Australian IODP Office, Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU, from mid-2008
  • Casual employee of ANU Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DEMS) and Executive Secretary of MARGO (marine geoscience peak body), 2006-2008
  • Visiting Fellow at DEMS, ANU, 2005-2007
  • BMR-AGSO-Geoscience Australia Senior Principal Research Scientist: 1990-2005
  • BMR Principal Research Scientist: 1984
  • BMR Senior Research Scientist: 1982-84
  • UNDP Marine Geologist based in Fiji: 1980-81
  • BMR Geologist Classes 1-3: 1963-1980

 

Awards and Scholarships  

  • Australian Commonwealth Scholarship for BSc, 1960-61
  • Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) Cadetship for BSc (Honours) degree, 1962
  • Australian Public Service Board Scholarship for PhD in Kiel, Germany, 1969-1971
  • Australian Department of Science funding for 3 months in Germany, 1977
  • Tripartite Australian funding for 3 weeks at US Geological Survey, 1983
  • German funding for Dahlem Conference in Berlin, 1991
  • Australian Academy of Science/French Embassy funding for 6 weeks at Geodynamic Institute in Villefranche-sur-mer in France, 1996
  • Stillwell Award for best paper in Australian Journal of  Earth Sciences in 2006, awarded in 2007