Lawrence Austin Frakes (born 1930)[1] is an American-born geologist and paleoclimatologist residing in Australia since 1973.
He holds (emeritus) the Douglas Mawson Professor of Geology chair, at the University of Adelaide, in South Australia.
[4] Frakes studied at the University of California, Los Angeles where he earned his master's degree in 1959 (with a thesis on "The geology of the Quatal Canyon area, Kern, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties, California") and his Ph.D. in 1964 (entitled "Paleogeography of the Trimmers Rock Member of the Fort Littleton Formation (Devonian) in southern and eastern Pennsylvania")[5] with advisor John C.
He was named to his position as the Douglas Mawson Professor of Geology chair, at the University of Adelaide in 1985.
[10] His studies of ocean sediments helped to determine the history of glaciation,[11] and have been published in well-respected journals, including Nature.