John Long

JOHN LONG

Professor John Long is an internationally-recognised palaeontologist, prolific author and science communicator. Long’s life embraces many disparate interests: from scientist to explorer, writer to motorcyclist, and martial arts instructor to philosopher of life.

With a passion for sharing cutting-edge research through a variety of channels to reach all sectors of the public, Long’s research has been published in the most prestigious peer-reviewed science journals in the world. These include eight papers in Nature, two in Science, and a cover story for Scientific American. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 140 popular science articles and web articles, and 26 book titles,

Currently, Long is Strategic Professor in Palaeontology and Research Section Head at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He has reviously worked in senior management roles in various museums in Australia and the USA as the Vice President of Research and Collections at the National History Museum of Los Angeles County, Head of Sciences at Museum Victoria, and as Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum.

Long has also held high level advisory and board roles, as the President of international Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology (2014-2016) and President of the Royal Society of South Australia (2016-20.

Long’s contributions to original research have led to many ground-breaking discoveries that have refined our views of the evolution of life on Earth. This work has been recognised in the form of several high-profile national awards, including the Eureka Award for Communication of Science and the Verco Medal. His fossil discoveries have been centre-stage in some of Australia’s major museum collections and utilised in public gallery exhibitions. He was instrumental in the design and development of new gallery spaces and exhibitions for a range of museum institutions, such as the Western Australian Museum’s “Diamonds to Dinosaur’s” Gallery; Museum Victoria’s “600 Million Years” Gallery; and, major gallery redevelopments at the LA NHM. Currently some of his fossil finds are on display in the iconic American Museum of Natural History’s “Evolution” Gallery in New York.

Regularly called on as an expert commentator on new scientific discoveries, Long has extensive media experience and has featured in several Australian and international documentaries, including Dinosaur Dealers (2002, Electric Pictures) and Secret History of Our Evolution (2018, ZED). He has also featured in many popular television profiles on popular infotainment programs such as Sixty Minutes (Australia), ABC TV’s Quantum and Catalyst programs.

Long regularly contributes to The Conversation website, where he has engaged almost two-million readers from around the world since 2013. He covers a diverse range of topics and subjects, from new dinosaur discoveries, the existence of giant prehistoric sharks, the first fishes, how coal forms, to creationism, mass extinction events, and protection of international natural heritage sites. He has also co-written reviews of Hollywood blockbuster movies like “The Jurassic Park – Lost World” films. These pieces include two essays chosen for the Anthology of Australia’s Best Science Writing in 2015 and 2017.

Awards:

His ability to engage the public by communicating science through novel ways has been recognised by the 2001 Eureka Prize for Public Promotion of Science, and the 2003 Riversleigh Medal. His research work has been awarded the 2009 Australian Science Prize, the 2011 Research Medal of the Royal Society of Victoria, the 2014 Verco Medal of the Royal Society of South Australia, and he was part of the team that won the 2016 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research. He has also been honoured by being made a Bragg Fellow of the Royal Institution of Australia in 2017.

In 2020, he was announced as the winner of an Australian national lifetime achievement award, the James and Bettison Award of $50,000, some of which will be devoted to completing his new book with high quality illustrations and developing a TV series.