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Doctor of Philosophy in Geology (University of New South Wales)
David joined QUT in 2019 to develop capabilities in space science and astrobiology. David received a PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2014 for research into life and early terrestrial environments preserved in Archean (4-2.5 billion-year-old) rocks in Western Australia. In 2014-2015, while a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), he studied molecular evidence for ancient microbial metabolisms preserved in Earth’s oldest known fossils, and worked on the development of scientific instrumentation that flew to Mars on NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Mission. He joined NASA as a full time research scientist based in the Planetary Science Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and has since designed and fielded numerous platforms for geological investigations in extreme environments, including multi-million-dollar projects funded by NASA. David has broad interests in the fields of astrobiology, geology and sustainable development, and welcomes collaborations in these areas.
Projects (Chief investigator)
- Data Analysis and Operations Software for the Perseverance Rover Mission
- Searching for Life in Earth's Early Geological Record
Additional information
David is the 2021 AIPS Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year, a Long Term Planner for NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Mission, and a Co-Investigator of the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry aboard the Perseverance Rover. He has successfully developed a number of hardware and software products for NASA. Several of these technologies have applications in the terrestrial mineral exploration sector.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- AIPS Young Tall Poppy Award
- Type
- Recipient of a Nationally Competitive Research Fellowship
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- ARC DECRA Fellow
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Voyager Prize
- Flannery, D., Allwood, A., Hodyss, R., Summons, R., Tuite, M., Walter, M. & Williford, K. (2019). Microbially influenced formation of Neoarchean ooids. Geobiology, 17(2), 151–160. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123612
- Allwood, A., Rosing, M., Flannery, D., Hurowitz, J. & Heirwegh, C. (2018). Reassessing evidence of life in 3,700-million-year-old rocks of Greenland. Nature, 563(7730), 241–244. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123699
- Flannery, D., Summons, R. & Walter, M. (2018). Archean lakes as analogues for habitable Martian paleoenvironments. In E. Grin & N. Cabrol (Eds.), From habitability to life on Mars (pp. 127–152). Elsevier. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123766
- Flannery, D., Allwood, A., Summons, R., Williford, K., Abbey, W., Matys, E. & Ferralis, N. (2018). Spatially-resolved isotopic study of carbon trapped in ~3.43 Ga Strelley Pool Formation stromatolites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 223, 21–35. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123770
- Tobin, T., Flannery, D. & Sousa, F. (2018). Stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology of Upper Cretaceous deposits of Day Nunatak, Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. Cretaceous Research, 84, 407–419. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123768
- Flannery, D., Allwood, A. & Van Kranendonk, M. (2016). Lacustrine facies dependence of highly 13C-depleted organic matter during the global age of methanotrophy. Precambrian Research, 285, 216–241. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123769
- Thompson, D., Flannery, D., Lanka, R., Allwood, A., Bue, B., Clark, B., Elam, T., Estlin, T., Hodyss, R., Hurowitz, J., Liu, Y. & Wade, L. (2015). Automating x-ray fluorescence analysis for rapid astrobiology surveys. Astrobiology, 15(11), 961–976. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/124543
- Martindale, R., Strauss, J., Sperling, E., Johnson, J., Van Kranendonk, M., Flannery, D., French, K., Lepot, K., Mazumder, R., Rice, M., Schrag, D., Summons, R., Walter, M., Abelson, J. & Knoll, A. (2015). Sedimentology, chemostratigraphy, and stromatolites of lower Paleoproterozoic carbonates, Turee Creek Group, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 266, 194–211. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/124540
- Schopf, J., Kudryavtsev, A., Walter, M., Van Kranendonk, M., Williford, K., Kozdon, R., Valley, J., Gallardo, V., Espinoza, C. & Flannery, D. (2015). Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(7), 2087–2092. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/124539
- Allwood, A., Clark, B., Flannery, D., Hurowitz, J., Wade, L., Elam, T., Foote, M. & Knowles, E. (2015). Texture-specific elemental analysis of rocks and soils with PIXL: The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry on Mars 2020. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2111–2123. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/124541
- Computational recognition of microscopic element-mineral associations and geologic textural patterns with image processing
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Balz Kamber - A Probability Based Framework for Planetary Exploration and Biosignature Detection using UAVs
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Felipe Gonzalez, Dr Fernando Vanegas Alvarez - Micro-XRF Analysis of Geobiological Samples with the Planetary Instrument for X-rayLithochemistry
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Balz Kamber, Dr Michael Jones - Investigating the origin of organic matter in Archean hydrothermal systems
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Balz Kamber - Detection and analysis of pollutants such as microplastics in Saccostrea glomerata from the Moreton Bay, with a historic comparative isotope and chemical analysis of shells
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor David Hurwood, Adjunct Associate Professor Junior Te'o