Dr Peter Last has made major contributions to Indo-Pacific ichthyology particularly within the fields of systematics, biodiversity and biogeography. He is regarded as a world authority on the taxonomy of elasmobranchs and Indo-Pacific deepwater fishes and is one of only a few world experts on the systematics and biogeography of batoid fishes, in particular the skates. Peter has also been the co-innovator of important work on threatened marine animals such as handfishes and freshwater elasmobranchs and plays an active role in the IUCN Shark Specialist Group assessing the conservation status of Australasian chondrichthyans. Senior Taxonomist at CSIRO, Hobart