Giant of Antarctic science dies

LONG- S ERVING f o r mer chief scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division Pat Quilty AM has died.

The Australian Antarctic Division said Professor Quilty died at the weekend at the age of 79.

Professor Quilty led the Antarctic Division’s scientific program for 18 years from 1980 and published more than 200 scientific papers.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science with honours from the University of Western Australia in 1962, Professor Quilty first visited Antarctica in 1965 as a field palaeontologist with the University of Wisconsin.

He received his PhD from the University of Tasmania in 1969.

Antarctic Division director Nick Gales said Professor Quilty had made an outstanding contribution to Antarctic science.

“His was a very distinguished career, with Professor Quilty playing a leading role in the international Antarctic science community,” Dr Gales said.

Dr Gales said Professor Quilty stated that one of his career highlights was his discovery of fossil whale and dolphin bones at Marine Plain, in the Vestfold Hills near Australia’s Davis station, the only site in Antarctica where fossil vertebrates had been found since the continent was glaciated 34 million years ago.

After leaving the Australian Antarctic Division, Professor Quilty taught and undertook research at the University of Tasmania.

Among the many honours and awards bestowed upon him during his long career was the Phillip Law Medal in 2016, being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1997 and the Royal Society of Tasmania Medal in 1996.

Quilty Bay in the Larsemann Hills near Davis station was named by the Australian Antarctic Names Committee in recognition of Professor Quilty’s contributions to science on the continent.