By a series of accidental turns and a healthy dose of serendipity I’ve ended up investigating the past. The passing hands of nature’s clock are vital for my work. I’m fascinated by what makes our planet tick and have spent my research career exploring what happened when.

I’m an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow and Professor of Climate Change at the University of University of New South Wales where I’m focussing my efforts on finding lessons from the past.  I’m particularly interested in past and future climates, how people have responded to change, and recent human evolution and migration. To do something positive about climate change, I helped set up a small company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels.

This site gives a taster of what I’ve done and what I’m working on now. Most recently I’ve been scientific advisor on a new Channel 4 TV series Man on Earth, presented by Tony Robinson, looking at the impact of past climate change on our ancestors.  I have written several popular science books and am now working with Text Publishing, looking at the great leap forward in Antarctic scientific discovery that was made during 1912. There’s also a short online lecture where I talk about some of the bizarre events and eccentric characters that have helped us understand time today.  Or if you fancy a virtual trip to Indonesia, click on the fieldtrip link to learn about some classic archaeological sites including the discovery of the hobbits (also known as Homo floresiensis). Movie footage of my fieldwork can be found on the Chris Turney Channel (hosted by YouTube). I’ve also recently started using Twitter so you can follow me in the field and receive science updates at ProfChrisTurney.