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Ian R. Plimer is a prominent Australian geologist and academic. He has published over 120 academic papers and six popular books.

Plimer is currently Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide. He was previously a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is also a prominent member of the Australian Skeptics.

Plimer is an outspoken critic of creationism and is famous for a debate with creationist Duane Gish in which he asked his opponent to hold live electrical cables to prove that electromagnetism was 'only a theory'. But his debating style has been criticised as counterproductive by some of his fellow anticreationists. In the late 1990s, Plimer was involved in legal proceedings against creationist Allen Roberts arising from Plimer's attacks on Roberts' claims concerning the location of Noah's Ark, in which Plimer was ultimately unsuccessful. Plimer and the Australian Skeptics have been the subject of repeated attacks from creationist organisations including 'AiG', or Answers in Genesis.

Professor Plimer is also critical of what he sees as irrational elements within the environmental movement. He is well known for his criticism of Greenhouse gas politics and is considered one of the leading academic greenhouse skeptics arguing that extreme environmental changes are inevitable and unavoidable. He suggests that money would be better directed to dealing with problems as they occur rather than making expensive and futile attempts to prevent climate change. He was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 2004.

Awards, Fellowships and Prizes

• Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
• Eureka Prizes (x2)
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
• Fellow Geological Society
• Clarke Medal
• Leopod von Buch Plakette

Bibliography

• Telling Lies for God - Reason vs Creationism, Ian Plimer, Random House, Sydney, 1994 (ISBN 0-09-182852-X)
• A Short History of Planet Earth, Ian Plimer, ABC Books, 2001 Paperback (ISBN 0-7333-1004-4)

References

• University of Melbourne biography

• University of Adelaide biography

• The Ian Plimer files

• How Not To Argue With Creationists by Jim Lippard, issue XXIX of Creation/Evolution, 11(2):9–21, Winter 1991–1992

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