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PalAss Web Team


Mark Sutton

    Mark is an invertebrate palaeontologist specialising in three-dimensional reconstruction techniques, probably best known for his work on the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, and his invention of the slowest method of doing palaeontology yet devised by humanity. He is also known for collaring unsuspecting palaeontologists at meetings and haranguing them for not working in a sufficiently three-dimensional way. Mark took up palaeontology because it was biology without the blood, and is interested in phylogeny and evolution of a whole swathe of invertebrate groups, the more basal and poorly known the better. He is a closet geek whose career has often swung dangerously close to computer science, and included a three-year stint teaching IT in Lampeter, West Wales. At present he is based at Imperial College, London, where he teaches computing, geology and palaeontology course to occasionally willing undergraduates. In addition to the Paleontological Association, Mark is also involved with the journal Palaeontologica Electronica, and is especially good at php jiggery-pokery.


Al McGowan

    Al McGowan is currently Newsletter reporter for the Association, and is also responsible for compiling the list of scientific meetings published in the Newsletter and as listed here the PalAss website, and the recently developed online analytical resources for palaeontology section of the website. Al is a postdoctoral palaeobiologist based in the Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, working on systematic bias in the Phanerozoic marine record with Andrew B. Smith. His other major research interests include:

    • The use of morphospace to characterize evolutionary patterns and proceses
    • Space and time.
    • Simulation models in biogeography (with Dr Paul Upchurch, UCL)
    • Ammonoid systematics and palaeobiology
    • Large-scale marine biodiversity patterns (with the Paleobiology Data Base Project)

    In his abundant free time Al conducts field surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology and is involved with various conservation projects around Cambridge.


Norman MacLeod

    Norman is Keeper of Palaeontology at The Natural History Museum, London where he has been resident since 1993. His Ph.D. studies at The University of Texas (Dallas), and subsequent post-doctoral studies at The University of Michigan and Princeton University focused on (1) the causes of Phanerozoic extinction events, (2) morphometrics and the study of phenotypic change in both fossil and Recent taxa, (3) quantitative biostratigraphy, and (4) paleontological databases. In addition to these research programs he is the creator of the PaleoNet, listserver-www system, general editor of the PaleoBase paleontological database series, and the former Executive Editor of the electronic paleontological journal Palaeontologia Electronica. His most recent book, Morphometrics, Shape, and Phylogeny (co-edited with Peter Forey) was published by Taylor and Francis in 2002. As well as being a council member for the Palaeontological Association Norman creates the palaeomaths 101 column in the Palaeontology Newsletter, also generating the Palaeomath 101 web pages.


Alan Spencer

    Alan is a recent graduate from the University of Birmingham where he studied Geology and Archaeology. During this time he somehow got roped into completely redesigning the Palaeontological Association website, and designed the site and its online administration area from scratch. When not spending hours staring at computer code, he can be found getting lost on Anglesey looking for Neolithic Tombs; and once found, resisting the temptation to sample them with a hammer. Other then work he spends much of the time looking shabby and wondering about wearing a trench coat in search of free coffee. Alan can be contacted on webmaster.



Jason Hilton

    Jason is a research focussed palaeobotanist at the University of Birmingham. For PalAss Jason takes occasional role of 'ghost of webmasters-past' and occasionally helps out with updating the Associations website. Well, thats what he thinks, and opinions are bound to vary. In the meantime, he can be contacted on this e=mail, and for his sins (of which there are many) is nowadays more often associated with the website of the International Organisation of Palaeobotany.


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Created by Alan Spencer on the 2009-04-23. (Version 2.0)