Richard (Bert) ROBERTS

Title:   Professor
Position:   ARC Australian Professorial Fellow.  
                   Director, Centre for Archaeological Science (CAS)
Room:   41.268
Phone No:   +61 2 4221 5319
Email:   rgrob@uow.edu.au
Lab/other loc:   41.267 and 41.270A

Research Interests

• Application of luminescence dating methods in the Earth and archaeological sciences
• Development of optically stimulated luminescence dating techniques for individual sand grains
• Development of statistical models for luminescence and other dating methods
• Timing of human evolution and dispersal in Africa, Asia and Australia
• Dating of archaeological deposits 
• Timing and causes of megafaunal extinction events in Australia, Asia and North America
• Quaternary landscape evolution and environmental changes
• Sediment mixing in natural and archaeological deposits

Representative Publications

Roberts, R.G. & Brook, B.W. (2010) And then there were none? Science 327, 420–422. pdf

Haile, J., Froese, D.G., MacPhee, R.D.E., Roberts, R.G., Arnold, L.J., Reyes, A.V., Rasmussen, M., Nielsen, R., Brook, B.W., Robinson, S., Demuro, M., Gilbert, M.T.P., Munch, K., Austin, J.J., Cooper, A., Barnes, I., Möller, P. & Willerslev, E. (2009) Ancient DNA reveals late survival of mammoth and horse in interior Alaska. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106, 22352–22357.

Roberts, R.G., Westaway, K.E., Zhao, J.-x., Turney, C.S.M., Bird, M.I., Rink, W.J. & Fifield, L.K. (2009) Geochronology of cave deposits at Liang Bua and of adjacent river terraces in the Wae Racang valley, western Flores, Indonesia: a synthesis of age estimates for the type locality of Homo floresiensis. Journal of Human Evolution 57, 484–502.

Jacobs, Z. & Roberts, R.G. (2009) Human history written in stone and blood. American Scientist 97, 302–309.

Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G., Galbraith, R.F., Deacon, H.J., Grün, R., Mackay, A., Mitchell, P., Vogelsang, R. & Wadley, L. (2008) Ages for the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa: implications for human behavior and dispersal. Science 322, 733–735.

Turney, C.S.M., Flannery, T.F., Roberts, R.G., Reid, C., Fifield, L.K., Higham, T.F.G., Jacobs, Z., Kemp, N., Colhoun, E.A., Kalin, R.M. & Ogle, N. (2008) Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105, 12150–12153.

Jacobs, Z. & Roberts, R.G. (2007) Advances in optically stimulated luminescence dating of individual grains of quartz from archeological deposits. Evolutionary Anthropology 16, 210–223.

Prideaux, G.J., Roberts, R.G., Megirian, D., Westaway, K.E., Hellstrom, J.C. & Olley, J.M. (2007) Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia. Geology 35, 33–36.

Lian, O.B. & Roberts, R.G. (2006) Dating the Quaternary: progress in luminescence dating of sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 2449–2468.

Morwood, M.J., Soejono, R.P., Roberts, R.G., Sutikna, T., Turney, C.S.M., Westaway, K.E., Rink, W.J., Zhao, J.-x., van den Bergh, G.D., Rokus Awe Due, Hobbs, D.R., Moore, M.W., Bird, M.I. & Fifield, L.K. (2004) Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431, 1087–1091.

Bowler, J.M., Johnston, H., Olley, J.M., Prescott, J.R., Roberts, R.G., Shawcross, W. & Spooner, N.A. (2003) New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia. Nature 421, 837–840.

Roberts, R.G., Flannery, T.F., Ayliffe, L.K., Yoshida, H., Olley, J.M., Prideaux, G.J., Laslett, G.M., Baynes, A., Smith, M.A., Jones, R. & Smith, B.L. (2001) New ages for the last Australian megafauna: continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago. Science 292, 1888–1892.

Searchable Publication List: (from 2000 onwards)

Abbreviated CV

2004-present: Professor, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

2008-2012: ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

2001–2006: ARC Senior Research Fellow
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

1996–2001: ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellow
Dept of Earth Sciences, La Trobe University & School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne

1994–1996: Research Fellow
Division of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University

1992–1994: Postdoctoral Fellow
Dept of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University

1991 University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia Degree: Ph.D in Geography

1984 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Degree: M.Sc. in Geography (by research)

1981 University of Wales, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom Degree: B.Sc. (Honours) in Geography (1st Class)