Presenter

Prof Bob Carter

Robert ( Bob) Carter is a retired Professor of Geology from

James Cook University, Townsville and Emeritus Fellow of the

Institute of Public Affairs, Melbourne. He is a palaeontologist,

stratigrapher, marine geologist and environmental

scientist with more than 40 years professional experience,

 and holds degrees from the University of Otago (New

Zealand) and the University of Cambridge (England). He has

held academic staff positions at the University of Otago

(Dunedin), Adelaide University (Adelaide) and James Cook

University (Townsville), where he was Professor of  Geology

and Head of the School of Earth Sciences between 1981 and 1999. 

Bob has wide experience in management and research administration, including as Chair of the

Earth Sciences Discipline Panel of the Australian Research Council, Chair of the national Marine

Science and Technologies Committee, Director of the Australian Office of the ocean Drilling

Program, and Co-Chief Scientist on ODP Leg 181 (Southwest Pacific Gateways). He is currently Chief

Science Adviser to the International Science Coalition and an Emeritus Fellow of the Institute of

Public Affairs.

Bob Carter contributes regular comment and opinion to media publications and to public

debates on scientific issues which relate to his areas of knowledge; his articles have

been published in Quadrant Magazine, The Australian, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald,

the Wellington Dominion Post, The Washington Times and the UK Sunday Telegraph. Bob

also offers lecture or workshop presentations by arrangement. Bob's public commentaries

draw on his knowledge of the scientific literature and a personal research publication

record of more than 100 papers in international science journals on topics which include

taxonomic palaeontology, palaeoecology, the growth and form of the molluscan shell, New

Zealand and Pacific geology, stratigraphic classification, sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology, the

Great Barrier Reef, Quaternary geology, and sea-level and climate change.

Bob Carter's current research on climate change, sea-level change and stratigraphy is based on field

studies of Cenozoic sediments (last 65 million years) from the Southwest Pacific region,

especially the Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand, and includes the analysis of

marine sediment cores collected during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 181, Southwest Pacific

Bob Carter has acted as an expert witness on climate change before the U.S. Senate Committee of

 Environment & Public Works, the Australian and N.Z. parliamentary Select

Committees into emissions trading and in a meeting in parliament house, Stockholm. He was

also a primary science witness in the U.K. High Court case of Dimmock v. H.M.'s Secretary of State

for Education, the 2007 judgement from which identified nine major scientific errors in Mr Al

Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth".

Bob's research throughout his career has been supported by grants from competitive public

research agencies, especially the Australian Research Council (ARC). He receives no

research funding from special interest organisations such as environmental groups, energy

companies or government departments. Bob strives to provide critical and dispassionate

analysis based upon scientific principles, demonstrated facts and a knowledge of the scientific

literature.