Rate My Professor Robert Burne

Robert Burne is Honorary Associate Professor in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University, a position held since March 2018. He previously served as Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences from January 1998 to February 2018, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Earth & Marine Science from January 1994 to December 1998, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Geology from August 1994 to January 1997, and Senior Research Fellow (Adjunct) in the Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology, Research School of Pacific Studies from August 1991 to January 1997. Burne is also Honorary Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Queensland since January 2015, and Guest Professor in the Department of Sedimentology and Hydrocarbon Accumulation at Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China since March 2018. His academic background includes a B.Sc. Honours in Geology from the University of Wales in 1966, a D.Phil. in Sedimentology from the University of Oxford in 1969, and an M.Phil. in Geobiology from the Australian National University in 2016. Research specializations and interests comprise microbialites, geobiology, facies analysis, coastal geoscience, turbidites, and gravity flow deposits.

Burne's career history began as Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica from December 1969 to December 1973. Subsequent appointments include Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Oxford from January to June 1974; Senior Research Scientist in the Petroleum Exploration Branch of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology & Geophysics from June 1974 to December 1977; Principal Research Scientist at the Baas Becking Geobiological Research Laboratory from January 1978 to December 1987; Marine Geologist with the United Nations Development Programme, CCOP/SOPAC in Fiji from October 1982 to January 1984; Project Leader for IGCP 261 'Stromatolites' from August 1986 to September 1989; Principal Research Scientist in Groundwater Programme and Environmental Geoscience at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation from 1988 to 1996. Key publications include 'Microbialites; organosedimentary deposits of benthic microbial communities' with L.S. Moore (Palaios, 1987); 'Stevensite in the modern thrombolites of Lake Clifton, Western Australia: A missing link in microbialite mineralization?' with L.S. Moore et al. (Geology, 2014); 'Modern lacustrine microbialites: Towards a synthesis of aqueous and carbonate geochemistry and mineralogy' with A.A. Chagas et al. (Earth-Science Reviews, 2016); 'Sea-level variation and the zonation of microbialites in Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Western Australia' with K. Johnson (Marine and Freshwater Research, 2012); 'Extensive occurrences of lower Cambrian red beds in South China: composition, characteristics, and implications for global environmental change' with Y. Li et al. (Marine and Petroleum Geology, 2023).