Person
McNamara, Kenneth J.
- Occupation
- Palaeontologist
Summary
Kenneth McNamara is a noted palaeontologist much of whose research looked at the relationship between evolution and development, using the fossil record to discover patterns and processes. He is an expert on Trilobites and fossil echinoderms, and identified over 80 new taxa. Before moving the Cambridge, United Kingdom, and becoming Curator of the Sedgwick Museum, McNamara was Senior Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum for over 25 years. His major publications include The evolution revolution (2007, written with John Long) and Trilobite paleobiology (2012, written with Samuel Gon), while at the Museum he published a number of popular works on the stromatolites, prehistoric mammals and ancient floras of Western Australia.
Details
Chronology
- 1972
- Education - BSc (hons), University of Aberdeen, Scotland
- 1976
- Education - PhD, University of Cambridge
- 1979 - 2007
- Career position - Senior Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum
- 1985 - 1995
- Career position - Member of Council, Royal Society of Western Australia
- 1991 - 1992
- Career position - President, Royal Society of Western Australia
- 2005
- Award - Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
- 2006
- Award - Mawson Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science
- 2007? - 2017
- Career position - Director, Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge
- 2007 - 2017
- Career position - Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
- 2008 - 2017?
- Career position - Fellow, Downing College, University of Cambridge
- 2017? -
- Career position - Emeritus Fellow, Downing College, University of Cambridge
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Bevan, Alex; and McNamara, Kenneth, Australia's meteorite craters (Welshpool, W.A.: Western Australian Museum, 2009), 95 pp. Details
- McNamara, Ken; with Murray, Peter, Prehistoric mammals of Western Australia (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2010), 32 pp. Details
- McNamara, Kenneth, Stromatolites (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2009), 86 pp. Details
- McNamara, Kenneth; and Gon, Samuel M., Trilobite paleobiology (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), 320 pp. Details
- McNamara, Kenneth; and Long, John, The evolution revolution (Chichester, U.K.: New York: Wiley, 1998), 298 pp. Details
- Steve McLoughlin; and Ken McNamara, Ancient floras of Western Australia (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2001), 42 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- Anon, 'Dr Kenneth McNamara, the Royal Society of Western Australia Medallist, 2005', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 89 (2006), 83-5. Details
- Downes, Peter, McNamara, Kenneth and Bevan, Alex, 'Encounters with Charles Hartt, Louis Agassiz and the diamonds of Bahia: the geological activities of the Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay in Brazil, 1858-1869', Earth Sciences History, 33 (1) (2014), 10-25. Details
- McNamara, Kenneth J.; and Dodds, Frances S., 'The Early History of Palaeontology in Western Australia: 1791-1899', Earth Sciences History, 5 (1) (1986), 24-38. Details
Resource Sections
- Australian Academy of Science, 'Mawson Medal and Lecture', Canberra, https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/awards-and-opportunities/mawson-medal-and-lecture. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 21 March 2023