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He has spent much of his research career gathering samples at excavation sites all over the world and is currently working on sites in South Africa, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria. With his new three year position at UNSW he is hoping to extend this work to sites in Australia and the Far East. Dr Herries aims to set up a unique archaeomagnetism laboratory that will make possible significant discoveries about the prehistory of the southern hemisphere. He will also be working with colleague Dr Darren Curnoe on stirring up debate in the controversial world of evolutionary theory.

Travelling to archaeological sites with his parents made a 7-year old Andrew Herries determined to become an archaeologist. Joining the Liverpool University Potholing Club gave him enthusiasm for the practical side of his chosen profession and led to him undertake postgraduate work in cave geology and geophysics. Dr Curnoe and Dr Herries met in 2002 when they were teaching at the Makapansgat Field School in South Africa. Dr Herries was working on a paleomagnetic study of several hominin palaeocaves in South Africa for his PhD thesis. He studied for his Doctorate at the Archaeological Department of the University of Liverpool, where he has enjoyed an 8 year career as an Undergraduate and Research student. Before taking up his Fellowship in Sydney, Dr Herries worked for a year on a European Commission funded research training network, Archaeomagnetic Applications for the Rescue of Cultural Heritage (AARCH) at the Geophysical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Science in Bulgaria. This project continued his work on the use of geophysical techniques to answer archaeological questions. The rest, as they say, is history.

Dr Herries may be returning to his Alma Mater in the UK to make use of the Geomagnetism Laboratory there as part of his work. However, Dr Herries and Dr Curnoe are working hard to secure resources for a new laboratory that will concentrate on the use of geophysics to answering archaeological, palaeoanthropological and palaeontological questions. The new facility will enable researchers to collect valuable data from Australian geological and archaeological samples to answer questions related to palaeoclimate, cave infill processes and taphonomy, geochronology and hominin fire use. This data is scarce in the Southern Hemisphere and will answer important questions about the evolution of our species and planet.

Dr Herries will make Sydney his home for the next three years and continue to travel extensively in South Africa, Asia and Europe to pursue his research projects. He has a strong working relationship with the Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins and is currently working on cave sites near Mossel Bay in South Africa with Prof. Curtis Marean. His work is also continuing with Prof. Lyn Wadley (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) at Sibudu Cave in South Africa and with Dr Panagiotis Karkanas (Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology) at cave sites in Greece.. He will also visit excavations in Northern Spain with Dr Ana Pinto of the Cultural Association for the Study of the Quaternary in the Cantabrian region.

This winter Dr Herries and Dr Curnoe will continue excavating newly discovered cave sites in the Kimberley region of South Africa. Dating information from their combined work will contribute to forthcoming publications about the chronology of hominin specimens in the region. Ongoing work with Dr Kevin Kuykendall (University of Sheffield, U.K.), Justin Adams (Washington University, USA) and Prof. John Shaw (University of Liverpool, U.K) will continue to refine this chronology. Some popular theories about the evolution of hominins could be challenged and Dr Curnoe and Dr Herries look forward to some lively debate on this subject.