Tim Flannery has received international acclaim as a mammologist and paleontologist, but in recent years he has become better known as an author and speaker with controversial ideas on conservation, the environment and population control.

He has written several popular books including the best-selling environmental anthology of Australasia, The Future Eaters, his most recent book, Throwim Way Leg, describing his adventures in Papua New Guinea, and two children's books on Australian dinosaurs. He has also written a feature for the Lab - Ghostlands - The dangerous dream of a Great Australia. His ideas have spawned numerous guest appearances on television, radio interviews and other public discussion. In 1995 Dr Flannery was invited to advise the Australian Federal Parliament on population and conservation issues.

His early scientific research focused on the evolution of Australasian mammals. During his doctoral studies, he described an astonishing 29 new kangaroo species (including 11 new genera and 3 new subfamilies) and discovered and described the world's oldest kangaroo fossils. Subsequently, he described and named the entire known fossil record of the phalangerids (the dominant living Australasian possum family).

In 1980, Flannery discovered several fossil dinosaur sites on the southern coast of Victoria, and in 1985 he was part of a group that discovered the first cretaceous mammal fossils found in Australia. The find pushed the mammal fossil record in Australia back 80 million years and was published on the cover of the journal Nature.

Beginning in 1983, Dr Flannery described all but one of the known Pleistocene megafaunal species in New Guinea and provided important insight into long-term human impacts on tropical rainforests. In 1990 he published The Mammals Of New Guinea, which remains only reference work for the entire New Guinea mammal fauna.

Throughout the past decade, Dr Flannery has led a research program surveying the mammals in Melanesia and initiated conservation programs for the some of the most endangered species. He has discovered 16 new Melanesian species, and many subspecies, including two new species of tree-kangaroos.

Dr Flannery next assignment will be to become the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University for twelve months in 1999.