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November 23, 2015

Mawson Medal awarded to scientist for his lifetime achievements

Scientist honoured for research on how marine environments respond to climate and sea-level changes.

A UOW academic’s lifetime contribution to earth sciences has been acknowledged with the announcement that he is the recipient of the Australian Academy of Science’s 2016 Mawson Medal and Lecture.

Professor Colin Murray-Wallace will officially receive his award (commemorating the work of the late geologist and Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson) in May 2016 when he joins other national award recipients at the Science at the Shine Dome event in Canberra.

His research has included a particular focus on the stratigraphy and Quaternary evolution of marginal marine environments in response to climate and sea-level changes.

Professor Murray-Wallace has actively undertaken Quaternary research for the past 30 years. He has received numerous research grants from the Australian Research Council and other funding bodies. He has served for eight years as the Head of the at UOW.

Professor Murray-Wallace was awarded the A.H. Voisey Medal by the Geological Society of Australia in 1995 for contributions to the study of the geology of New South Wales. He served as Secretary of the Australasian Quaternary Association from 1989 to 1997 and Co-ordinator of the Quaternary Environments Research Centre, ¾«¶«´«Ã½ of ¾«¶«´«Ã½, from 1998 to 2000 (now GeoQuEST Research Centre).

He was President of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) Commission on Coastal and Marine Processes (2003-2007), Secretary General of the XVII INQUA Congress (Cairns, 2007), Project Leader of the highly successful, UNESCO and International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)-funded International Geoscience Program Project 437, Coastal Environmental Change During Sea-Level Highstands (1999-2003) in which he collaboratively edited five special issues of international journals as part of the project.

Professor Murray-Wallace is on the editorial advisory boards of Quaternary Research and Quaternary Geochronology, and in 2008 became Editor-in-Chief of Quaternary Science Reviews following a period of five years as a member of the journal’s editorial team. He also served as Assistant Editor of Archaeology in Oceania (1988-1990).

In 2014 he published a 484 page book with Professor Colin Woodroffe entitled ‘Quaternary Sea-Level Changes: A Global Perspective’ through Cambridge ¾«¶«´«Ã½ Press and has a forthcoming book ‘Coastal Landscapes of South Australia’. While maintaining a vigorous research program, Professor Murray-Wallace has also been very active in undergraduate teaching and the supervision of postgraduate research students, many of whom, have gone on to assume influential positions in industry and academia.

“I feel immensely privileged and honoured in receiving this award. It means a lot to me, particularly as my early studies and research in geology were undertaken in the Mawson Laboratories in the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ of Adelaide,” Professor Murray-Wallace said.