Is an environmental scientist at James Cook University who studies ancient climate change.
Carter was born in England and emigrated to New Zealand in 1956. He obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in geology from the University of Otago in 1963 and returned to England to complete a Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of Cambridge in 1968. His doctoral thesis was titled, The Functional Morphology of Bivalved Mollusca.
Carter began his career as an assistant lecturer in geology at the University of Otago in 1963 and advanced to senior lecturer after obtaining his Ph.D. in 1968. He was professor and head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University from 1981 to 1998, an adjunct research professor at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University from 1998 to 2005 and a visiting research professor in geology and geophysics at the University of Adelaide from 2001 to 2005.
He has published over 100 research papers on climatology, geology, marine biology, paleoecology, and paleontology
Carter is a founding member of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, an emeritus fellow and science policy advisor at the Institute of Public Affairs, a science advisor at the Science and Public Policy Institute, and the chief science advisor for the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).
He has served as chair of the Earth Sciences Discipline Panel of the Australian Research Council, director of the Australian Office of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and Co-Chief Scientist on ODP Leg 181 (Southwest Pacific Gateway).
Carter has been a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the Geological Society of Australia, the Geological Society of New Zealand and the Society of Sedimentary Geology.