Mike Crisp studied long-term change in arid zone vegetation for his PhD at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 1976. From 1975-1989, he was a research scientist and herbarium curator at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. He was posted as the Australian Botanical Liaison Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, in 1981-2. In 1990 he took up a lectureship in plant systematics in the Division of Botany and Zoology at The Australian National University, where he became head of school in 2001-3 and Professor from 2004.
Research interests
- Phylogenetics and classification of Australian plants
- Reconstructing the origins and evolutionary diversification of flora
- Biogeography and large-scale community assembly.
Recent grants
- ARC Discovery Grant: Crisp, M.D., Cook, L.G.; 2013-2016; $350,000; Evolution of AustraliaŹ¼s globally unique hotspot of floral diversity.
- ARC Discovery Grant: Crisp, M.D., Cook, L.G.; 2009-2011; $280,000; Distinguishing among patterns of extinction and speciation through geological and climatic change: a molecular phylogenetic approach.
- ARC Discovery Grant: Crisp, M.D.; 2006-2008; $295,000; Australia's monsoon tropical flora: invader or relict?
- ARC Network Scheme: Westoby, M.; 2004-2009; $2.5 million; Australia-New Zealand Vegetation Function Network.
