Malte C. Ebach is a Senior Lecturer and ARC future Fellow in the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales and, Research Associate at the Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia. He is also an editor of the Journal of Biogeography, Zootaxa and Editor-in-Chief of Species and Systematics Series (University of California Press).
The Ebach Lab is a newly established biogeography and systematics research group at UNSW, which is currently focusing on Australasian Biogeography (with Shawn Laffan and Gerry Cassis), the Nature of Classification (with John S. Wilkins) and Trilobite Systematics (with John R. Paterson).
In 2009 the University of California Press published Comparative Biogeography: Discovering and Classifying Biogeographical Patterns of a Dynamic Earth (Parenti & Ebach, 2009), which has been praised as "... a fine introduction to the aims and methods of comparative biogeography, and the difference that it makes to our view of the world. Energetic and sometimes provocative, this book shows us how we can start to untangle the interconnected threads of biotic and planetary evolution to more clearly understand how earth and life evolve together." Sir Peter Crane, FRS, Yale University. On 12 January 2011, Comparative Biogeography was awarded the Smithsonian Institution Secretary's Research Prize for 2010, for exemplary scholarship and outstanding contribution toward the increase and diffusion of knowledge.
The Foundations of Systematics and Biogeography (Williams & Ebach, 2008) was recently published by Springer has attracted both positive and critical review: “... parts of the book provide a scholarly (but lively) introduction to a largely European, pre-Hennigian literature that is poorly known to most English-speaking systematists (Platnick, 2009: 279). The Systematics and Biogeography Blog discusses current topics addressed in the FSB book. Dave and Malte are currently working on the third edition to Cladistics (Cambridge University Press), which will be a simple and practical guide to biological systematics without all the jargon.
Malte is starting to focus on trilobite taxonomy and systematics. McNamara, Feist and Ebach (2009) published on the last harpetids from the Canning Basin, WA. Hopefully there will be more trilobite research to follow in the next few years!
For students looking for potential PhD or Masters projects at UNSW in the Ebach Lab, please check out our Student Projects page.
