In 1987, he joined the University of Adelaide completing his PhD thesis in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in 1995, entitled GaAs MESFET Photodetectors for Imaging Arrays, under Kamran Eshraghian and Bruce R.
[8] An investigation had shown that the Somerton Man's autopsy reports of 1948 and 1949 are now missing and the Barr Smith Library's collection of Cleland's notes do not contain anything on the case.
[9] In May 2009, Abbott consulted with dental experts who concluded that the Somerton Man had hypodontia (a rare genetic disorder) of both lateral incisors, a feature present in only 2% of the general population.
In June 2010, Abbott obtained a photograph of Jessica Thomson's eldest son Robin, which clearly showed that he – like the unknown man – had not only a larger cymba than cavum but also hypodontia.
[13] After initially contacting her to seek her DNA, Abbott married Rachel, the daughter of Roma Egan and Robin Thomson, in 2010, and they have three children.
[18] In February 2018, the University of Adelaide team obtained a high definition analysis of the mitochondrial DNA from the hair sample from Somerton Man.
[19] On 26 July 2022, Abbott announced that he and American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick had used DNA websites such as Ancestry.com to build a family tree of over 4,000 people.
[20] In March 2022, they narrowed this to Melbourne man Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker, who had no death record.