Professor Gregory Webb

Dorothy Hill Chair in Paleontology

School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
g.webb@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52181

Overview

Prof. Gregory E. Webb is a palaeontologist and carbonate sedimentologist who has occupied the Dorothy Hill Chair of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy at the University of Queensland since 2011. He is the head of the Integrated Palaeoenvironmental Research Group in the School of Earth Sciences. He obtained his BSc in Geology with highest honours at the University of Oklahoma (OU-1983) followed by an MSc in Geology (OU-1984) and a PhD in Palaeontology at The University of Queensland in 1989. His research interests are clustered within the fields of carbonate petrology, reef palaeobiology, geomicrobiology, carbonate geochemistry and carbonate stratigraphy. These fields have major implications for understanding Earth history, palaeoclimatology, and mineral and energy exploration. In general, Prof. Webb's research focuses on understanding how organisms make rocks – how the biosphere interacts with the lithosphere through time - and how those rocks are preserved and how they record evidence of past environmental conditions in their geochemistry.

Research Impacts

Key impacts of Prof. Webb's research include: demonstration of the role of microbes in reef building through geological time; establishment of the value of modern and ancient microbialites as proxies for environmental geochemical signatures; application of environmental geochemistry to new coral reef samples made available through UQ's new research vessel the RV D Hill and to late Pleistocene vertebrate remains in Queensland that demonstrate recent, pre-anthropogenic changes in Queensland's climate. The integration of well dated fossil remains from both terrestrial and marine environments with high quality geochemical analysis allows specific hypotheses to be tested that provide information directly useful for testing climate models and the effects of pre-instrumental climate change and anthropogenic forcing on Australian faunas and ecosystems.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Research) of Science, University of Oklahoma
  • Bachelor of Science, University of Oklahoma

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2019) Master Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Webb, Gregory E. and Webster, Jody M. (2022). Scientific drilling on the GBR - unlocking the history of the reef. Australia’s coral reefs: perspectives from beyond the water’s edge. (pp. 124-129) edited by Sarah Hamylton, Pat Hutchings and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. Canberra, ACT Australia: CSIRO Publishing . doi: 10.1071/9781486315499

  • Simpson, Glen A., Webb, Gregory E. and Lang, Simon (2012). Rockhampton Group. Geology of the Yarrol Province, central coastal Queensland. (pp. 90-110) edited by C. G. Murray, P. R.Blake, S. B. S. Crouch, M. A. Hayward, A. D. C. Robertson and G. A.Simpson. Brisbane, Austalia: Geological Survey of Queensland.

  • Webb, Gregory E. and Kamber, Balz S. (2011). Trace element geochemistry as a tool for interpreting microbialites. Earliest Life on Earth: Habitats, Environments and Methods of Detection. (pp. 127-170) edited by Suzanne D. Golding and Miryam Glikson. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-90-481-8794-2_6

  • Webb, Gregory E. (2007). Lower Tournaisian microbial reefs, eastern Australia. Facies from Palaeozoic reefs and bioaccumulations. (pp. 231-233) edited by Emmanuelle Vennin, Markus Aretz, Frederic Boulvain and Axel Munnecke. Paris: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris.

  • Webb, Gregory E. (2002). Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous reefs: depressed reef building following the middle Paleozoic collapse. Phanerozoic Reef Patterns. (pp. 239-269) edited by Wolfgang Kiessling, Erik Flugel and Jan Golonka. Tulsa, OK, United States: SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology).

  • Webb, Gregory E. (2001). Biologically induced carbonate precipitation in reefs through time. The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems. (pp. 159-203) edited by George D. Stenley Jr.. New York , NY, United States: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

  • Jones, P. J., Metcalfe, I., Engel, B. A., Playford, G., Rigby, J., Roberts, J., Turner, S. and Webb, G. E. (2000). Carboniferous palaeobiogeography of Australasia. Palaeobiogeography of Australasian faunas and floras. (pp. 259-286) Canberra: Association of Australasian Palaeontologists.

  • Webb, Gregory E. (1996). Morphological variation and homoplasy: the challenge of Paleozoic coral systematics. Paleobiology and biology of corals. (pp. 135-157) edited by George D. Stanley Jr.. Pittsburgh, PA, United States: The Paleontological Society.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision