UNSW Leaders in Science

Professor Michael Archer AM

Biological Science Building, Room 565
Phone: +61 2 9385 3446 -  Email: m.archer@unsw.edu.au

Career profilePublicationsResearchSupervision & teachingFunding

Supervision & teaching

Postgraduate supervision of research projects has been carried out in almost all fields of vertebrate palaeontology (most taxonomic groups), stratigraphy, palaeoecology and biocorrelation. Since 1978, Archer has supervised 1 Graduate Diploma research project, 3 Masters Qualifying research projects, more than 28 Honours projects, 2 Masters research project and more than 40 Doctoral research projects. Most of the PhD and Honours students are co-supervised by Dr Suzanne Hand. Postgraduate projects focused on living animals have included field ecology of small desert marsupials, molecular and morphological systematics of bats, electrophoretic and morphological systematics of marsupials, phylogenetic systematics of New Guinean mammals, functional dental morphology, feeding behaviours of marsupials, basicranial functional morphology, forest ecology of bats, and snake and bird phylogenetic systematics.

All except three postgraduate students who have completed or are about to complete degrees have obtained jobs. Those who do not have permanent jobs are successful consultants. Most have gone on to illustrious careers (although not always in science) such as Paul Willis (scientist, ABC Science Unit), Kerry Nettle (Greens Senator), Walter Boles (Curator of Birds, Australian Museum), Ken Aplin (CSIRO Senior Research Scientist), Scott Hocknull (Young Australian of the Year, Curator of Fossils at the Queensland Museum), Tim Flannery (Australian of the Year), Mina Bassarova (World Wildlife Fund), Stephen Salisbury (senior academic in the University of Queensland), Pip Brewer (palaeontologist in the Natural History Museum, London), Steve Wroe (Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship), Robin Beck, Postdoc in the American Museum of Natural History; etcetera. Common denominators in the success of most are the graduate attribute skills they picked up during their time at UNSW including science communication.

Undergraduate teaching since 1978 has included: 1st Year Biology courses Sessions 1 & 2 (continuing), Geology (continuing), Sociology, Optometry, Anthropology; 2nd year Invertebrates course, Systematics course, General Ecology course, Palaeontology course (continuing); 3rd year Mammalogy course, Vertebrate Zoogeography and Evolution course, Arid Zone Biology course (continuing); 4th year Honours course; General Studies course on the Science of Science Fiction (continuing); Climate Change course (continuing); Conservation Biology Course (continuing); Graduate Skills course including critical thinking (continuing); etcetera. Regular lectures have also been given at the University of Sydney (Mammal Biology Course; Postgraduate Seminar Program in Dentistry), Macquarie University (Human Evolution), LaTrobe University (Marsupial Biology Course), University of Melbourne (Mammalogy) and James Cook University (Conservation Biology).

Regular lectures are given to Secondary schools at all levels (WA, Qld, NSW and Victoria) on a range of science topics.

Public lectures are also given on a regular basis throughout Australia and occasionally internationally.