Secretary General: Professor Peter Coxon (Ireland)

Pete has very broad interests within Quaternary science and enjoys maintaining an active part in many branches of that discipline including archaeology, palaeobotany, glacial sedimentology/ geomorphology and periglacial geomorphology. Current research interests include the dating and analysis of Late Tertiary and Quaternary landscape evolution using palynology on palaeosurfaces in western Ireland. He is also actively researching the biostratigraphy and biogeography of Pleistocene temperate stages in Ireland, the geomorphology and biogeography of the Irish Late-glacial (13,000-10,000 years BP) and the geomorphology and landscape evolution of parts of the Indian Himalaya.

Irish Quaternary Association website

Milford Sound, NZ, August 2007

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Treasurer: Dr Marie-France Loutre (Belgium)

Marie-France Loutre contributed in improving the accuracy of the orbital parameters and in calculating the long-term variations of the astronomically forced insolation. She is using Earth System Models of intermediate complexity to to test the Milankovitch theory over the last glacial-interglacial, to assess the role of the different forcings and feedbacks in the model, in particular those related to the atmospheric CO2 concentration. She focuses on the interglacial during the Quaternary, in particular MIS11, in order to gain further knowledge on the future climate of the next glacial interglacial cycle. From the experience gained in performing these experiments related to the past, she looks for the future of our climate, at the geological time scale, using different CO2 forcing scenarios to better understand the role of the 'natural' and of the anthropogenically-perturbed conditions. She is also involved in climate simulation at time scales of the order of hundreds to thousands of years, in particular to assess the uncertainties of climate models for the projected future climate.

She is member of the editorial board of Climate of the Past and Quaternary International.
She is president of the Belgian National Committee on Quaternary Research (BELQUA)
Institute web site : http://www.climate.be
Belgian Quaternary Association (BELQUA) : http://www.belqua.be

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Vice President: Professor Margaret Avery ( South Africa)

Margaret Avery is a palaeoecologist with an archaeological background whose long-time interest is exploring the multi-facetted information potential of micromammalian prey of barn owls. Arising from this has been the main thrust of her research, contributing to our knowledge of the environmental background to human biological and technological evolution. To this end she has worked on material from all of the important archaeological sites in South Africa as well as early hominid sites such as Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, and sites in Zambia. Another aspect has been applying information to global change studies and the assessment of human impact on the environment. Complementary studies of modern material, besides being important in their own right, help inform taphonomic analyses of fossil samples.

Margaret is a Fellow and Vice President of the Royal Society of South Africa and a Past President of the Southern African Society for Quaternary Research. She serves on the South African National Committee for INQUA and was Secretary-General of the XV INQUA International Congress held in Durban in 1999. She has been Editor of the South African Archaeological Bulletin and Vice President of the South African Archaeological Society.

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Vice President: Professor John Lowe (United Kingdom)

John Lowe is Professor of Geography and Quaternary Science at the Centre for Quaternary Research (CQR), Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London.   He was a co-founder of the CQR and was its Director from its inception in 1990 until 1997;   he has resumed this position for a second term commencing in early 2006.   He was a co-founder of the NERC-supported MSc degree programme in Quaternary Science and the MSc Programme Director from 1990 to 1997 and from 2001-2005. He was Dean of the Faculty of Science at Royal Holloway from 1997 to 2000.    His current research interests include Quaternary geology and global environmental change; high-precision dating methods; abrupt climate change; palynology; tephrochronology.   He is presently conducting research in several parts of Europe, including the Mediterranean region, and in Peru.

Previously within INQUA he was co-ordinator of the INTIMATE project, a core project of the INQUA Palaeoclimate Commission, from 1995 to 2003.   He was a full member of the Palaeoclimate Commission from 1999 to 2003 and President of PALCOMM from 2003 to 2007.

John is a Fellow of the Geological Society (London) and a chartered geologist, and is currently the President of the UK Quaternary Research Association , having served as Vice-President of that society from 1993 to 1997.   He has served on numerous committees for the UK's Natural Environment Research Council including as Chairman of the Earth Science grants committee and current member of the Steering Committee for NERC's 'RAPID Climate Change' programme.   He has acted in an advisory capacity for committees of The Royal Society, IGCP, the European Commission/Union and for IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme).   He was the founding editor of the Journal of Quaternary Science (1985) and still serves on its board as well as on the board of Quaternary Science Reviews .   He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals, has co-edited six volumes and three field guides on Quaternary matters and is co-author of the text-book Reconstructing Quaternary Environments (Lowe and Walker, Addison-Wesley-Longman, 2 nd edition 1997).   He was awarded the Coke Medal by the Geological Society in 2003 for services to Quaternary science.

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Vice President: Professor Koji Okumura (Japan)

Koji Okumura is professor of the Department of Geography in the Graduate School of Letters, Hiroshima University, Japan since 1996.   He had served as a research geologist in Seismotectonic Research Section of the Geological Survey of Japan from 1986 to 1996. Paleoseismology, active tectonics and tephrochronology are the major interests of Koji's Quaternary research.   Since 1988 Koji has conducted international cooperative research on paleoseismology in Turkey, Western U.S., Australia, Japan, Asia, and South America. A number of important findings as well as exchange of ideas and techniques are the fruits of these cooperations.

The 1995 Kobe earthquake urged Koji to devote more for hazard reduction based on Quaternary research.   Recent damaging earthquakes further raised public attention on geologic hazard reduction and risk management especially for seismic and nuclear safety. Koji serves for the Science Council of Japan as an associate member and is coordinating Japanese Quaternary research and collaboration with INQUA.   He has been working with INQUA since 1991 in commissions of tephrochronology, neotectonics, and TERPRO.  

Graduate School of Letter
Hiroshima University
1-2-3 Kagamiyama, Higashihiroshima
739-8522 Hiroshima, Japan

Phone: +81 82 424 6657
Fax: +81 82 424 0320

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