[Aqualist] Professor John Chappell 24/04/1940 to 3/10/2018

[Tim Barrows]

Dear all,

Sad news in that Professor John Chappell passed away on the 3rd October after a brief battle with cancer of the bile duct. John was buried in Dunedin yesterday. The note below is a short tribute sent out to members of the Academy of Science. More tributes will follow.

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It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Professor John Chappell, aged 78 years.

John was a Geoscientist, elected to the Academy in 1992 for his major contributions toward understanding late Quaternary sea level changes, based on raised coral reefs in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere. John used stable isotopes and radiometric dating, to establish links between sea level, global ice volume, and past climates, contributing substantially to the astronomical theory of ice ages. John also worked on the late Quaternary history of coasts, reefs, and estuarine lowlands, and on high resolution analysis of lowland environmental histories. He developed predictive models of the effects of future sea-level changes on these important environments and made major contributions to measuring and understanding erosion, soil production and landscape evolution as well as prehistoric interactions between climate, the biota and humans.

John worked at the Australian National University since 1967 and was appointed Head of the Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology at the Research School of Pacific Studies from 1990-2000. In 2001, he joined the Research School of Earth Sciences as Professor. After he retired in 2005, John retained the position of Emeritus Professor at the ANU while living in Dunedin, New Zealand.

John was a very active contributor to the Academy and generously gave his time to serve on numerous committees, including: Sectional Committees responsible for Earth and Planetary Sciences (1993-97 and 2004-08); National Committees for Geography and for Quaternary Research (1993-2007); international exchange programs to Asia and Europe (1993-2000) and; the Academy's International-biosphere Program during the early 1990s.

Our deepest condolences go to John's family, and to his many colleagues and friends.

Professor John Shine AC PresAA
President



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Prof. Timothy T. Barrows
Future Fellow
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Wollongong

Professor of Environmental Change
Department of Geography
University of Portsmouth

Tim.Barrows at uow.edu.au<mailto:Tim.Barrows at uow.edu.au>
Twitter: @4Dlandscapes
4Dlandscapes.wordpress.com
Contact<https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/tim_barrows>