Robert M. Carter, English paleontologist, Died at 73

  Reseacher

Robert Merlin “Bob” Carter was born in 1942 and deied on January 19, 2016.

He was an English palaeontologist, stratigrapher and marine geologist.

He was best known as a prominent Australian climate change skeptic.

Robert was the professor and head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University from 1981 to 1998.

He gained his B.Sc. (Hons) in geology from the University of Otago in 1963 and returned to England to complete a Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of Cambridge in 1968.

Carter doctoral research was titled The Functional Morphology of Bivalved Mollusca.

Mr.Carter establish his career as an assistant lecturer in geology at the University of Otago in 1963 and advanced to senior lecturer after obtaining his Ph.D. in 1968.

Robert was the professor and head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University from 1981 to 1998, an adjunct research professor at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University from 1998 to 2005 and a visiting research professor in geology and geophysics at the University of Adelaide from 2001 to 2005.

Carter published over 100 research papers on taxonomic palaeontology, paleoecology, 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.

Carter published primary research in the field of palaeoclimatology, investigating New Zealand’s climate extending back to 3.9 Ma.

Carter retired from James Cook University in 2002, maintaining the status of “adjunct professor” until January 2013 when Carter’s position of adjunct professor was not renewed.

Robert has maintained an association with several persons that disagree with some aspects of the scientific consensus on climate change.

He was a founding member of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, an emeritus fellow and science policy advisor at the Institute of Public Affairs, a science advisor at the Science and Public Policy Institute, and the chief science advisor for the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).

Robert Carter worked as chair of the Earth Sciences Discipline Panel of the Australian Research Council, director of the Australian Office of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and Co-Chief Scientist on ODP Leg 181 (Southwest Pacific Gateway).

Robert Carter was a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the Geological Society of Australia, the Geological Society of New Zealand and the Society of Sedimentary Geology.

Robert M. Carter passed away at 74 yrs old due to a heart attack.