Tim Flannery

Dr Tim Flannery is one of Australia's best-known scientists as well as being one of our best-selling writers. His views are often provocative, both intellectually and socially. Tim is the Principal Research scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. He started out, though, doing a degree in English. After graduating, he found a temporary job at the Museum of Victoria in their Vertebrate Paleontology department. This led him to a second degree in Earth Sciences, and from there to a doctorate with the Zoology department at UNSW. He is renowned academically for his research into the mammals of Melanesia, publishing several acclaimed books on the subject…but he's best known by the broad public as the author of The Future Eaters, one of the best-selling non-fiction books in Australia and New Zealand. That book won a shelf-load of prizes, including the Age book of the year in 1995 and the inaugural South Australian premier's literary award in 1996. His interests aren't restricted to biology, though. Tim has also written 1788, a bestseller about the early years of British colonisation, editing and republishing contemporary accounts, and he has another such book in the pipeline. Tim appears regularly on radio and is often called on as expert commentator on a wide range of environmental and social issues. He's made numerous television appearances and is currently shooting a television series for ABCTV based on The Future Eaters. He has written articles for a broad range of journals from literary magazines to specialist scientific journals and mass-circulation magazines. He has recently accepted an offer to be Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University in 1998.