Mike Pole
Queensland Herbarium
Toowong, Qld 4066
Australia

I was brought up in Alexandra, the driest, hottest, and coldest part of New Zealand. I did my Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where all the geos thought I was a botanist, and all the botanists thought I was a geo. I then spent time in Australia, starting with four years in the Department of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, and finally to the University of Queensland. After spending eight years teaching Australian ecology to groups of visiting American students, I quit that job in July. I now live in a ger at the foot of the Gobi Altai (mountains) in western Mongolia, where I am an exploration geologist. When I'm not doing that I'm looking at the prehistory of Australasian vegetation, with a view to climate change and biogeography. And the rest of the time I try and travel. This past year (2007) I made it to Georgia and saw a little more of Turkey.