Associate Professor
Luke Nothdurft
Faculty of Science,
School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Biography
Dr Luke Nothdurft is a marine geoscientist based at the Queensland University of Technology. Luke’s research focuses on changes in shallow marine carbonate skeletons and sediment. Using a combination of geological and biological field data and samples, Luke investigates problems around climate change in tropical marine environments over a range of time scales with laboratory-based geochemical and microscopic analysis. He has 20 years of experience working on the Great Barrier Reef with current projects on Halimeda bioherms, the transformation of fossil coral and algae into limestone and attachment of live corals to reef substrates.
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor
Faculty of Science,
School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Keywords
carbonate, coral, coral reef, diagenesis, geology, palaeoclimate, scanning electron microscope, sedimentology, synchrotron
Research field
Geology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Teaching
- Science foundations
- Palelontolgy
- Marine Science
- Carbonate sedimentology
- Reef studies
- Field courses such as geological mapping
He also has participated in leadership teams for curriculum development and design of the Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Advanced Science, Earth Science major studies, and Climate science.
Experience
2021 – Present Acting Bachelor Science (ST01) Course Coordinator, QUT
2014 – 2021 Subject Area Coordinator - Bachelor of Science Honours - Earth Science, QUT
2020 Science Committee Vice-Chair - Australian and New Zealand Consortium International Ocean Discovery Program
2020 – Present Mars Science Team - Perseverance Rover - PIXL instrument operations - JPL NASA
2018 – Present Science Committee - Australian and New Zealand Consortium International Ocean Discovery Program
2014 – 2021 Subject Area Coordinator - Bachelor of Science - Earth Science, QUT
2013 - Australian University Geoscience Education Network Conference Organisor
Publications
- Williams, C., Webster, J., Bevitt, J., Webb, G., Nothdurft, L., Paumard, V., McGregor, H. & Murphy, R. (2025). Neutron Computed Tomography: A Novel High-Resolution, Non-Destructive Method for Screening Fossil Coral for Diagenetic Alteration for Geochronologic and Paleoclimatic Reconstructions. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 26(10). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/260609
- Lewis, B., Suggett, D., Prentis, P. & Nothdurft, L. (2025). Walking coral: Complex phototactic mobility in the free-living coral Cycloseris cyclolites. PLoS ONE, 20(1). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/255647
- Ulm, S., McNiven, I., Summerhayes, G., Wu, P., Bunbury, M., Petchey, F., Hua, Q., Skelly, R., Lambrides, A., Rowe, C., Lowe, K., Reepmeyer, C., Maclaurin, C., Woo, K., Harris, M., Morgan, S., Turner-Kose, K., Slater, S., Connelly, J., Kneppers, M., Szabó, K., Fairbairn, A., Haberle, S., Hopf, F., Bultitude, R., Ash, J., Lewis, S., Beaman, R., Leon, J., McDowell, M., Potter, M., Connelly, B., Little, C., Jackson, S., McCarthy, J., Nothdurft, L., Zhao, J., Bird, M., Felgate, M., Cobus, B. & other, a. (2024). Early Aboriginal pottery production and offshore island occupation on Jiigurru (Lizard Island group), Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 333. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248848
- Guerin, K., Murphy, D., Lohr, S. & Nothdurft, L. (2024). Experimental constraints on the role of temperature and pyrogenic mineral assemblage in wildfire-induced major and trace element mobilisation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 386, 18–32. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/256061
- Orenstein, B., Jones, M., Flannery, D., Wright, A., Davidoff, S., Tice, M., Nothdurft, L. & Allwood, A. (2024). In-situ mapping of monocrystalline regions on Mars. Icarus, 420. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/251948
- Webb, M., Bostock, H., Webster, J., McNeil, M., Nothdurft, L., Byrne, M., Borghi, S. & Clements, M. (2023). Discovery of the dendrophylliid scleractinian Heteropsammia cochlea (Spengler, 1781) in Halimeda bioherms of the Northern Great Barrier Reef. Marine Biodiversity, 53(3). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/244067
- McNeil, M., Firn, J., Nothdurft, L., Pearse, A., Webster, J. & Roland Pitcher, C. (2021). Inter-reef Halimeda algal habitats within the Great Barrier Reef support a distinct biotic community and high biodiversity. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 5(5), 647–655. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209965
- Schrank, C., Jones, M., Kewish, C., Van Riessen, G., Elphick, K., Sloss, C., Nothdurft, L., Webb, G., Paterson, D. & Regenauer-Lieb, K. (2021). Micro-scale dissolution seams mobilise carbon in deep-sea limestones. Communications Earth & Environment, 2(1). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/213013
- McNeil, M., Nothdurft, L., Dyriw, N., Webster, J. & Beaman, R. (2021). Morphotype differentiation in the Great Barrier Reef Halimeda bioherm carbonate factory: Internal architecture and surface geomorphometrics. The Depositional Record, 7(2), 176–199. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/205725
- McNeil, M., Nothdurft, L., Erler, D., Hua, Q. & Webster, J. (2021). Variations in Mid- to Late Holocene Nitrogen Supply to Northern Great Barrier Reef Halimeda Macroalgal Bioherms. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 36(2). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209964
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Luke, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/l.nothdurft
Awards
- Type
- Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Member of the Science Committee - Australian and New Zealand Consortium International Ocean Discovery Program
- Type
- Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
- Reference year
- 2013
- Details
- Brisbane Workshop - Australasian Universities Geoscience Educators Network
Selected research projects
- Title
- Unravelling Sea Level, Climate and Coral Reef Responses to Global Change
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP250102180
- Start year
- 2025
- Keywords
- Title
- The Role of Calcareous Macroalgae Halimeda in Provision of Inter-Reef Benthic Habitat and Structural Complexity in the Northern Great Barrier Reef
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- Start year
- 2017
- Keywords
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Diverse microbial life and major bolide impact event recorded in the ~2.63 Ga Carawine Dolomite, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor David Flannery - A petrographic and geochemical approach to the timing and nature of carbonate diagenesis in the southern Great Barrier Reef
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr David Murphy - Holocene climate variations on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Justine Shaw - Halimeda bioherm origins and functions in the northern Great Barrier Reef
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor David Flannery
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Substrate attachment in colonial Scleractinia (2024)
- Wildfire as an Agent of Geochemical and Mineralogical Differentiation at the Earth's Surface (2022)
- Planar Localisation Bands in the Shallow Regions of the Southern Hikurangi Subduction Wedge: Effects of Tectonic Setting and Lithology (2021)
- Spatial and Temporal Evolution and Internal Sedimentary Architecture of Holocene Halimeda Bioherms; Northern Great Barrier Reef (2021)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
- Clast Assimilation and Substrate Attachment in Acropora millipora (2019)
- Millimetre-Scale Localisation of Strain and Dissolution in Oolitic Grainstone (2018)
- Initiation and Growth of Mid-Holocene Coral Reefs, Cleveland Point, Moreton Bay, Queensland (2017)
- A Geomorphological Study of the South Wellesley Islands, Southern Gulf of Carpentaria (2016)
- Depositional Model for the Early Miocene Turbidite Sequence, The Whakataki Formation, NZ (2015)
- Controls on mid-Holocene fringing reef growth and termination in a high latitude, estuarine setting, Wellington Point, Southeast Queensland (2012)
Supervision topics
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.