Biography
Dr Chris Mays is the Lecturer in Palaeontology at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork. From 2012–2017, Chris was Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at Monash University. His research focused on the south polar fossil forests from New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica. He has employed and developed a range of imaging and 3-D ‘virtual palaeontology’ techniques in the realm of fossil plants, such as neutron tomography and synchrotron X-ray tomography. Chris is a commissioned author for Scientific American, and published his first popular science book in 2020. He was awarded the Mary Wade Prize in 2016 and the Dorothy Hill Award in 2020; these are the most prestigious early and mid-career research awards, respectively, in Australasian palaeontology and Chris is the only recipient of both.
Chris’ research interests have focused on mass extinctions, and the responses of plants to past greenhouse events. In his own words: “I study fossil plants to reconstruct the changes of past ecosystems during extreme warming events. These can tell us a lot about the long-term effects we may, and may not, expect to see in our presently warming world.”
Role
- Funded Investigator
Institution
- UCC
Research Area
- Earth System Change
Expertise
- Climate and Environment
