Martin Brasier

Who is Martin Brasier?

Martin David Brasier FGS, FLS is an English palaeobiologist and astrobiologist made known from his conceptual analysis of microfossils and evolution in the Precambrian and Cambrian. He is Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall. His research critically examines the context and character of the early fossil record, making use of field mapping, logging, optical petrography, stable isotope geochemistry, confocal microscopy, NanoSims microprobes, and lasers for high resolution 3D scanning and laser raman spectroscopy. His contributions include the Brasier-Schopf debate on critical testing of questionable 3460 Ma Apex chert 'microfossils' at NASA; work on the earliest well-preserved fossils of cells; the pumice hypothesis for the origins of life; mapping the earliest life on land; and the palaeoecology, development and evolution of Ediacaran to early Cambrian organisms. He was secretary and then leader of the International Geoscience Programme, UNESCO and International Commission on Stratigraphy Projects on the Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary decision.