My research interests encompass the sedimentology and stratigraphy of non-marine, coastal, and shallow marine depositional systems. I am particularly interested in applications to exploration for mineral resources, principally hydrocarbons and coal. I have had a long-term interest in the development of genetic models for coal deposits in different tectonic and depositional settings, and also in the prognostic and diagnostic applications of sedimentology to oil and gas exploration. Much of my research has been related to the geology of eastern Australia, based at the University of Queensland (UQ) before my move to UNL. Recent research endeavours have included: 1) Involvement in a multi-national Antarctic drilling consortium that recovered a complete stratigraphic transect through a rift basin proximal to the Antarctic continental margin; 2) Paleogeographic reconstructions of the Permo-Triassic Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin system in eastern Australia, and regional tectonic reconstructions of the adjacent northern New England Fold Belt (with co-worker Dr. Rod Holcombe at UQ); 3) Development of genetic stratigraphic models for several coal-bearing formations in Queensland and New South Wales (with Honours and PhD students); 4) Applications of ichnology (trace fossil studies) to diagnosis of , and exploration in, Permian successions in eastern Australia (with UQ postdoctoral fellow Dr. Kerrie Bann; and 5) Process and facies sedimentology, and Quaternary stratigraphy of the Burdekin River and Delta system in north Queensland, Australia (with co-worker Dr. Jan Alexander of the University of East Anglia, UK, Honors, and PhD students). In studies of Quaternary environments, I have gained considerable experience in the use of shallow geophysical imaging methods, principally Ground-Penetrating Radar and Seismic Reflection.

Projects planned for the near future or in initial stages of development include: 1) Paleoclimatic analysis of the Carboniferous-Permian stratigraphic record in eastern Australia, to more precisely constrain the timing and character of the late Paleozoic Gondwanan glaciation in that area (with co-worker Dr. Tracy Frank at UNL); 2) Genetic stratigraphy and exploration geology of Permian fluvial, coastal plain and delta systems in the Bowen-Sydney Basin system of eastern Australia; 3) Paleogeomorphic analysis of seismic data from the central Great Barrier Reef province of Queensland, Australia; and 4) Stratigraphic analysis of fluvial successions in the western Great Plains of the USA to contribute to the understanding of Cainozoic landscape evolution (with UNL co-workers).