Michael Meyer
Innsbruck Quaternary Research Group
Research interests
Optical dating of paleoenvironmental processes and archaeological sites
OSL rock surface dating
Quaternary landscape evolution and environmental change
Human-environment interactions
Glaciation and human occupation of central High Asia
Short CV
2021 Associated Professor
2021 Deputy Head U. Innsbruck Research Centre Geodynamics – Geomaterials
2019 Habilitation & Tenur Track Position Geochronology
2015-2021 Head U. Innsbruck Research Centre Geodynamics – Geomaterials
2011 Senior Scientist, head OSL laboratory Dept. of Geology, U. Innsbruck
2008-2011 Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow (ERC), U. Wollongong (Australia)
2007-2008 Erwin Schrödinger Postdoctoral Fellow (FWF), U. Wollongong (Australia)
2006-2007 Postdoctoral Research Fellow U. Innsbruck
2006 PhD U. Innsbruck
2001 MSc. Centre for Earth Sciences, U. Vienna, Austria
Awards
2020 Lehreplus! Award for excellence in teaching
2017 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Prize
2011 Dr. Otto Seibert Prize
2011 Early Career Research Award, University Innsbruck
2008 Otto Ampferer Prize of the Austrian Geological Society
2004 Research Grant University-Jubilee-Foundation of the City of Vienna
Grants
European Research Council, Austrian Science Fund, Tyrolian Science Fund
Research expeditions & professional experiences
2013-2016 Scientific Leader of three Tibet Expeditions
2007-2008 Participation in international archaeological excavations in Africa
2003-2007 Scientific cave expeditions in the Austrian Alps
1999-2001 Quaternary geologist in Austrian–Bhutanese Cooperation Project, Bhutan-Himalaya
Science communication and public outreach (selected)
Popular-science movie about OSL research (link english) (link german)
Dating of oldest human traces on the Tibetan Plateau (Nature news)
News Article OSL lab in Die Presse (german)
Pictures
Publications
Gild-Haselwarter, C., Meyer, M. C., Geitner, C., Haas, J.N., Vranjes-Wessely, S., Hejny, C., Kofler, W., Krainer, K., Remias, D., Szidat, S., Sanders, D. (2024). Dynamic landscape response to Younger Dryas and earliest Holocene cooling events in the European Eastern Alps (Austria). Quaternary Science Reviews 344, 108959, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108959
Zerboni A., Usai D., Meyer, M.C., (2016). The Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age site of Al Jamrab in central Sudan. - Antiquity, 90, https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/zerboni351.
Wang, Z., Meyer, M.C., Hoffmann, D.L. (2016): Sedimentology, petrography and early diagenesis of a travertine-colluvium succession from Chusang (southern Tibet). - Sedimentary Geology, 342, 218-236.
Wang, Z., Meyer, M.C., Gliganic, L.A., Hoffmann, D. L., May, J-H. (2017): Timing of fluvial terrace formation and concomitant travertine deposition in the upper Sutlej River (Tirthapuri, southwestern Tibet) and paleoclimatic implications. - Quaternary Science Reviews, 169, 357-377.
Slack, M., Connell, K., Davis, A., Gliganic, L.A., Law, W.B., Meyer, M.C. (2017): Post-last glacial maximum settlement of the West Angelas region in the inland Hamersley Plateau, Western Australia. - Australian Archaeology, 83, 127-142.
Meyer, M.C., Hoffmann, D.L., Aldenderfer, M.S., Haas, W.R., Dahl, J.A., Wang, Z., Degering, D., Schlütz, F. (2017): Response to Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene". Science, 357 (6351).
Meyer, M.C., Aldenderfer, M.S., Wang, Z., Hoffmann, D.L., Dahl, J.A., Degering, D., Haas, W.R., Schlütz, F. (2017): Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene. – Science, 355, doi: 10.1126/science.aag0357.
Haas, W.R., Aldenderfer, M.S., Meyer, M.C. (2017): Response to Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene". Science, 357 (6351).
Gliganic, L.A., Cohen, T.J., Meyer, M.C., Molenaar, A. (2017): Variations in luminescence properties of quartz and feldspar from modern fluvial sediments in three rivers. - Quaternary Geochronology, 41, 70-82.
Cohen, T.J., Meyer, M.C., May, J.-H. (2018): Identifying extreme pluvials in the last millennia using optical dating of single grains of quartz from shorelines on Australia’s largest lake. – The Holocene, 28, 150-165.
Meyer, M.C., Gliganic, L.A., Jain, M., Sohbati, R., Schmidmair, D. (2018): Lithological controls on light penetration into rock surfaces – implications for OSL and IRSL surface exposure dating. Radiation Measurements, 120, 298-304.
Gliganic, L.A., Meyer, M.C., Sohbati, R., Jain, M., Barrett, S. (2018): OSL surface exposure dating of a lithic quarry in Tibet: laboratory validation and application. Quaternary Geochronology, 49, 199-204.
Spinapolice, E., Zerboni, A., Meyer, M.C., Usai, D. (2018): Early human occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region, central Sudan): a contribution to the understanding of the MSA of Eastern Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 16, 1-14.
Wilcox, P.S., Meyer, M.C. & Festi, D. (2025). Semi-continuous release of Cordilleran Ice Sheet meltwater between 20,000 and 17,000 years ago. Nature Geoscience, 18, 459-461.
Meyer, M.C., Gliganic, L.A., May, J.H., Merchel, S., Rugel, G., Schlütz, F., Aldenderfer, M.S. and Krainer, K., (2020): Landscape dynamics and human-environment interactions in the northern foothills of Cho Oyu and Mount Everest (southern Tibet) during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. - Quaternary Science Reviews, 229, p.106127.
Carobene, D., Meyer, M.C., Spötl, C., Roetzel, R., Göhlich, U.B., Mandic, O., Harzhauser, M., Wimmer-Frey, I., Reimer, P.J., Auer, F. (2020): An interdisciplinary study of a mammoth-bearing Late Pleistocene sediment succession in lower Austria. – Quaternary International, 542, 15-29.
Wilkins, J., Schoville, B.J., Pickering, R., Gliganic, L., Collins, B., Brown, K.S., von der Meden, J., Khumalo, W., Meyer, M.C., Maape, S., 2021. Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari. Nature 592, 248-252.
Silvestrini, S., Romandini, M., Marciani, G., Arrighi, S., Carrera, L., Fiorini, A., López-García, J.M., Lugli, F., Ranaldo, F., Slon, V., Tassoni, L., Higgins, O.A., Bortolini, E., Curci, A., Meyer, M., Meyer, M.C., Oxilia, G., Zerboni, A., Benazzi, S. and Spinapolice, E.E. (2022): Integrated multidisciplinary ecological analysis from the Uluzzian settlement at the Uluzzo C Rock Shelter, south-eastern Italy. - Journal of Quaternary Science, 37, 235-256.
Gliganic, L.A., Meyer, M.C., May, J.-H., M.S., A., Tropper, P., 2021. Direct dating of lithic surface artifacts using luminescence. Scientific Advances 7.
Fuhrmann, S., Meyer, M., Obleitner, F, & Gliganic, L. (2022): Testing the effects of aspect and total insolation on luminescence depth profiles for rock surface exposure dating.- Radiation Measurements, 153: 106732.
Wang, Z., Yin, J.J., Cheng, H., Ning, Y., Meyer, M.C. (2022). Climatic controls on travertine deposition in southern Tibet during the late Quaternary. - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 110852.
Price, M.F., Gurgiser, W., Juen, I., Adler, C., Wymann, S., Bahn, M., Björnsen-Gurung, A., Dax, T., Duglio, S., Fischer, JT., Füreder, L, Kurmayer, R., Machold, I., Mailer, M., Marke, T., Marzeion, B., McDowell, G.M., Meyer, M.C., Neuburger, M., Nicholson, L., Nicolussi, K., Oedl-Wieser, T., Peters, M., Richter, K., Rotach, M., Rüdisser, J., Ruiz-Peyré, F., Rutzinger, M., Schermer, M., Schirpke, U., Schneiderbauer, S., Steiger, R., Stotten, R., Szarzynski, J., Tappeiner, U., Ueno, K., Wohlfahrt, G., Mayr, S. (2022): The International Mountain Conference, Innsbruck, Austria, September 2019 (IMC2019): A Synthesis with Recommendations for Research. - Mountain Research and Development, 42 (1).
Gurgiser, W., Price, M.F., Juen, I.F., Körner, C., Bahn, M., Gems, B., Meyer, M.C., Nicolussi, K., Tappeiner, U., Mayr, S. (2022): Rising slopes—Bibliometrics of mountain research 1900–2019. - PLOS ONE, 17(8): e0273421.
Gliganic, L.A., Slack, M., Meyer, M.C. (2023): Tending to tradition: Dating stone arrangement maintenance in northwest Australia using optical methods. - Journal of Archaeological Sciences, 49, 104053.
Gliganic, L., McDonald, J., Meyer, M. (2024): Luminescence rock surface exposure and burial dating: a review of an innovative new method and its applications in archaeology. - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 16, 17.