 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(March 2018) |
Paul M. A. Willis is an Australian palaeontologist, science communicator and former Director of the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus).
| A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(March 2018) |
Paul M. A. Willis is an Australian palaeontologist, science communicator and former Director of the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus).
Willis studied zoology and geology at University of Sydney and went on to complete a PhD in palaeontology at the University of New South Wales. [1] He has been a resident palaeontologist on ten Antarctic expeditions and has written or co-authored eight books on dinosaurs, rocks and fossils.
While Willis found his first fossil when he was six, the earliest part of his collection was a small echinoid collected by his parents on their honeymoon. [2] Willis completed a BSc at Sydney University in zoology and geology before conducting a PhD at the University of New South Wales. His Doctoral thesis was on The Phylogenetic Systematics of Australasian Crocodilians. Willis's doctoral studies resulted in the erection of several new taxa including the subfamily Mekosuchinae, and the genera Baru , Kambara, Australosuchus , Trilophosuchus and Harpacoshampsa. He conducted extensive field work, mostly in North Queensland, as well as completing a period as a paleontological preparator at the Australian Museum. During this time Willis prepared an opalised skeleton dubbed by him as Eric the Plesiosaur and later named Umoonasaurus.
In 1997, Willis commenced a traineeship with the ABC. [1] During his career in public broadcasting, Willis went on to report and present stories for Quantum and Catalyst on ABC and the series Monster Bug Wars on SBS. Willis produced over 350 stories for Catalyst during a ten-year stint with the program. He left his employment at the ABC to take up directorship of the Royal Institution of Australia in 2011 which ended in July 2017. [3] He also worked for ABC radio, creating The Correx Files for Triple J, presenting numerous regular science talkback segments on various radio stations across the country and contributing to The Science Show, Earthbeat and The Health Report.. [1]
Willis is now freelancing science communications through his company Media Engagement Services as well as conducting some paleontological studies as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Flinders University. He is also an ambassador for the National Secular Lobby. [4]
In 2000 Willis was a joint recipient of the Eureka Prize for Science Communication and was voted Australian Skeptic of the Year in 2002 for working to counter pseudoscience. [5] [6]
Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki, often referred to as "Dr Karl", is an Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio, television, and podcasts.
Sir Frederick McCoy, was an Irish palaeontologist, zoologist, and museum administrator, active in Australia. He is noted for founding the Botanic Garden of the University of Melbourne in 1856.
Australian Skeptics is a loose confederation of like-minded organisations across Australia that began in 1980. Australian Skeptics investigate paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies. This page covers all Australian skeptical groups which are of this mindset. The name "Australian Skeptics" can be confused with one of the more prominent groups, "Australian Skeptics Inc", which is based in Sydney and is one of the central organising groups within Australian Skeptics.
James William Kitching was a South African vertebrate palaeontologist and regarded as one of the world’s greatest fossil finders.
Charles Lewis Camp was an American palaeontologist and zoologist, working from the University of California, Berkeley. He took part in excavations at the 'Placerias Quarry', in 1930 and the forty Shonisaurus skeleton discoveries of the 1960s, in what is now the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Camp served as the third director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology from 1930 to 1949, and coincidentally as chair of the UC Berkeley Paleontology Department between 1939 and 1949. Camp named a number of species of marine reptiles such as Shonisaurus and Plotosaurus, as well as the dinosaur Segisaurus.
Maryanne Demasi is an Australian investigative journalist and presenter best known for her controversial work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Catalyst television program. Demasi challenges the scientific consensus on cholesterol, saturated fat and statins. She has argued that high-blood cholesterol and high saturated fat consumption do not cause or increase risk of cardiovascular disease and that cholesterol-reducing drugs such as statins are ineffective. These claims have been criticized by medical experts as dangerous and misleading.
John Albert Long is an Australian paleontologist who is currently Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He was previously the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He is also an author of popular science books. His main area of research is on the fossil fish of the Late Devonian Gogo Formation from northern Western Australia. It has yielded many important insights into fish evolution, such as Gogonasus and Materpiscis, the later specimen being crucial to our understanding of the origins of vertebrate reproduction.
Wadeichthys oxyops is an extinct archaeomaenid bony fish from the Koonwarra Lake fauna of Lower Cretaceous Victoria, Australia. If the related genus Koonwarria is regarded as being in a different family, then W. oxyops is the only known Cretaceous-aged archaeomaenid from Australia.
Professor Michael Archer AM, FAA, Dist FRSN is an Australian paleontologist specialising in Australian vertebrates. He is a professor at the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales. His previous appointments include Director of the Australian Museum 1999–2004 and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales 2004–2009.
Ray Norris is an astrophysicist and science communicator, based at the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility, and Western Sydney University, and conducts research in astrophysics and Aboriginal Astronomy.
The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia, whose mission is science communication. It opened in October 2009 and is housed in the historic Stock Exchange building, now known as The Science Exchange. RiAus publishes the Cosmos Magazine website and hosts the SCINEMA International Science Film Festival.
Frank Elmer Peabody, was an American palaeontologist noted for his research on fossil trackways and reptile and amphibian skeletal structure.
Richard Shine is an Australian evolutionary biologist and ecologist; he has conducted extensive research on reptiles and amphibians, and proposed a novel mechanism for evolutionary change. He is currently a Professor of Biology at Macquarie University, and an Emeritus Professor at The University of Sydney.
Patricia Arlene Vickers-Rich, also known as Patricia Rich, is an Australian Professor of Palaeontology and Palaeobiology, who researches the environmental changes that have impacted Australia and how this shaped the evolution of Australia’s fauna and flora.
Johanna Gabrielle Ottilie "Tilly" Edinger was a German-American paleontologist and the founder of paleoneurology.
Francis Rex Parrington was a British vertebrate palaeontologist and comparative anatomist at the University of Cambridge. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was director of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology and past president of the zoology section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Professor Lynda (Lyn) Dent Beazley is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia, and the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at Murdoch University. Among other awards, she has been named an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contributions to medical science a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Robert Joseph Gay Savage was a British palaeontologist known as Britain's leading expert on fossil mammals. He worked at the University of Bristol for nearly 40 years and studied fossils around the world, especially in North and East Africa. He produced the 1986 popular science book Mammal Evolution: An Illustrated Guide and co-edited several technical books in the Fossil Vertebrates of Africa series with fellow palaeontologist Louis Leakey.
Michael Waldman is a British palaeontologist known for his work on fossil fish, mammals, and reptiles. He also discovered the globally important fossil site of Cladach a'Ghlinne, near Elgol on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. This site exposes the Kilmaluag Formation and provides a valuable record of Middle Jurassic ecosystems. During the 1970s he visited the site several times with fellow palaeontologist Robert Savage. The fossil turtle Eileanchelys waldmani was named after Michael in recognition of his notable contribution to palaeontology.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
