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Mike Archer (paleontologist)
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Name
Mike Archer
Role
Professor
Education
Princeton University
Awards
Clarke Medal
Professor Michael (Mike) Archer AM, FAA, FRSN (born 1945, Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian paleontologist specialising in Australian vertebrates. He is a Professor at the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales. His previous appointments include Director of the Australian Museum 1999-2004 and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales 2004-2009.
He was born in Sydney but raised in the United States and studied at the Princeton University. From 1972 to 1978, he was the curator of mammals at the Queensland Museum. Since 1983, he has been involved with the exploration of the Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland.
He is opposed to creationism and regularly engages in active debates with creationists.
During his time as director of the Australian Museum, he was the initiator of attempts to clone the Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger, an animal extinct since 1936. Mike Archer has stated that he is obsessed with bringing the thylacine back to life via cloning. He has said that his obsession is going to push the research further and further until he and his team will have their first living thylacine clone.
In 2011, Archer published an article asserting that a vegetarian diet causes more suffering and deaths of animals than an omnivorous diet. All Animals Australia has published a rebuttal.
Archer is married to the paleontologist Suzanne Hand, with whom he has two daughters.
Honours
1984: Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales
1987: Inaugural Queensland Museum Medal for Research
1989: Australian Heritage Award for Nature Conservation
1990: Inaugural Eureka Prize for the Promotion of Science
1990: Inaugural IBM Conservation Award for Research
1994: Von Mueller Medal, ANZAAS
1996: Verco Medal, Royal Society of South Australia
1998: Australian Skeptic of the Year
2002: Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
2008: Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
2009: Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN)
Publications
Archer, M. (Ed.) (1982). Carnivorous Marsupials. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1982. ISBN 978-0-9599951-3-8 (2 volumes)
Archer, M. and Clayton, C. (Eds.) (1984). Vertebrate Zoogeography & Evolution in Australasia: Animals in Space & Time. Hesperian Press. ISBN 978-0-85905-036-4
Archer, M. and Flannery, T.F. with Grigg, G.C. (1985) The Kangaroo. Kevin Weldon Press. ISBN 978-0-949708-22-9
Archer, M., Hand, S. and Godthelp, H. (1986). Uncovering Australia's Dreamtime. Surrey Beatty & Sons ISBN 0-949324-07-8
Archer, M. (Ed.) (1987). Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons in association with the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. ISBN 0-949324-05-1
Cronin, L. (Ed.) (1987). Koala: Australia's Endearing Marsupial. Reed Books Pty, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7301-0158-1 (text by Archer et al.)
Long, J.A., Archer, M., Flannery, T. and Hand, S. (2002). Prehistoric mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One hundred million years of evolution. University of NSW Press.. ISBN 978-0-86840-435-6
Archer, M., Hand, S. and Godthelp, H. (2000). Australia's lost world: Prehistoric animals of Riversleigh. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33914-0
