Tim Birkhead
| Tim Birkhead | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Timothy Robert Birkhead 28 February 1950[1] Leeds |
| Residence | Sheffield |
| Institutions | University of Sheffield |
| Alma mater |
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| Thesis | Breeding biology and survival of guillemots (Uria aalge) (1976) |
| Notable students |
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| Notable awards | Fellow of the Royal Society (2004) |
|
Website www | |
Timothy Robert Birkhead FRS[2] (born 28 February 1950) is a British zoologist, and professor of behavior and evolution at the University of Sheffield.[3][4]
Education
Birkhead was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from Newcastle University in 1972, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Oxford in 1976 on the Breeding biology and survival of guillemots Uria aalge[5] and a Doctor of Science from Newcastle in 1989 with thesis titled Sperm competition and the behavioural ecology of birds.[1]
Research
Birkhead's research[6] falls into three main areas:
- Post-copulatory sexual selection, mainly in birds[7]
- Population biology of birds.
- The history of science, and of reproduction and ornithology in particular.
Birkhead has made important contributions to the field of behavioural ecology — the study of how animal behaviour evolves under the influence of environmental pressures. He also studies the competitive actions of male birds’ sperm.[2] He showed that extra-pair copulation — where the offspring raised by a pair are the result of the female mating with an outsider male — is common amongst birds. Tim also demonstrated the existence of ‘guarding techniques’, which are carried out by the male bird in a pair. In studies of the zebra finch, he revealed that the sperm of the last male to mate with a female took precedence for fertilising her eggs.[2]
His 2016 book on birds' eggs, The Most Perfect Thing, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize.
Publications
- Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition. Harvard University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-674-00666-9.
- The red canary: the story of the first genetically engineered animal, Phoenix, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7538-1772-8
- The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. Bloomsbury. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7475-9256-3.; Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7475-9822-0
- The Magpies: The Ecology and Behaviour of Black-Billed and Yellow-Billed Magpies. A&C Black. 2010. ISBN 978-1-4081-3777-2.
- Great Auk Islands; a Field Biologist in the Arctic. A & C Black, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4081-3786-4.
- Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin, Princeton University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-691-15197-7
- Bird Sense: What it Is Like to Be a Bird, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4088-2013-1
- "The Most Perfect Thing: the Inside (and Outside) of a BIrd's Egg", Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016 ISBN 978-1-4088-5126-5
References
- 1 2 BIRKHEAD, Prof. Timothy Robert. Who's Who. 2005 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
- 1 2 3 Anon (2004). "Professor Tim Birkhead FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
“All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived September 25, 2015)
- ↑ http://www.shef.ac.uk/aps/staff-and-students/acadstaff/birkhead
- ↑ Tim Birkhead at TED
- ↑ Birkhead, Timothy Robert (1976). Breeding biology and survival of guillemots (Uria aalge) (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 44837387.
- ↑ http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=tim+birkhead Tim Birkhead in Google Scholar
- ↑ Blount, J. D.; Metcalfe, N. B.; Birkhead, T. R.; Surai, P. F. (2003). "Carotenoid Modulation of Immune Function and Sexual Attractiveness in Zebra Finches". Science. 300 (5616): 125–127. doi:10.1126/science.1082142. PMID 12677066.
External links
- Mark Cocker (17 October 2008). "Flights of fancy". The Guardian.
- http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=400029