Scott Hocknull (born 1977) is a vertebrate

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and Senior Curator in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

at the

Queensland Museum The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland, dedicated to natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement. The museum currently operates from its headquarters and general museum in South Brisbane with specialist mu ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. He was the 2002 recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award. He is the youngest

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n to date to hold a museum curatorship and has described and named 10 new species and four new genera.

Early life

Scott Hocknull was born in

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. His family moved to

when he was 12. He enrolled in a B.Sc. at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

in 1996, majoring in zoology and geology. He took his degree with Honours in 2000.

Career

Hocknull worked at the Queensland Museum during his university studies. After graduation he became a curator in geosciences at the Queensland Museum. He became senior curator in 2002. He took his doctorate from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

, in 2009. In cooperation with the original finder Robyn Mackenzie, Hocknull published the description of

Australotitan ''Australotitan'' () is an extinct genus of titanosaurian sauropod that existed during the Cenomanian-Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous in what is now southern-central Queensland, Australia. The genus contains a single species, ''Australotitan c ...

cooperensis.Hocknull SA, Wilkinson M, Lawrence RA, Konstantinov V, Mackenzie S, Mackenzie R. 2021. A new giant sauropod, Australotitan cooperensis gen. et sp. nov., from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia. PeerJ 9:e11317
persistent acces
doi
/ref>

Awards

* Young Australian of the Year for Queensland, 2002 * National and Queensland Career Achiever, 2002 * Queensland Science and Technology Achiever, 2002 * National Career Achiever, 2002 * Centenary Medalist, 2003 * Neville Stephens Medal, Geological Society of Australia, 2005 * Riversleigh Medal, 2009 * Queensland's best and brightest - The Courier Mail, 2009 * Rising Stars of Queensland Science, 2015 * 10 Best of the Best of Queensland's 50 Top Thinkers, 2015

References

External links

Scott Hocknull profile at Queensland Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocknull, Scott Living people Australian paleontologists People from Brisbane Place of birth missing (living people) 1977 births