Frank Sear is a graduate of Cambridge University, where he did both his undergraduate and postgraduate work. As a Scholar at the British School he did research on Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics, and as a Cotton Fellow he excavated in Benghazi and Lepcis Magna, Libya. In 1975 he took up a lecturing position at the University of Adelaide where he taught Latin, Greek and Classical Archaeology. He has since been a visiting scholar at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Hugh Last Fellow at the British School at Rome. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He was Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Melbourne from 1991 to 2009 and is now Professor Emeritus. He was the co-director of the Australian Pompeii project from 1978 to 1988, and since 1990 has directed the Australian Roman Theatres project, surveying the theatres at Gubbio, Taormina, Benevento and Pompeii in Italy; Jerash in Jordan; and Orange in France. He has written numerous articles on his archaeological work and published a number of books including Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics, Roman Architecture and Roman Theatres.