Professor Tim R Birkhead FRS
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 4622
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 0002
email : t.r.birkhead@sheffield.ac.uk
Page 2 of Professor Birkhead's website
Page 3 (teaching webpage page)
Career
BSc (1972) University of Newcastle; DPhil (1976) University of Oxford
Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Zoology, University of Sheffield (1976-92)
Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of Sheffield (1992-present)
Fellow of the Royal Society 2004
Senate Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching 2007
Teacher of the Year Award 2009, Animal & Plant Sciences
Elliot Coues medal 2010 for outstanding and innovative contributions to ornithological research
ASAB medal (Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour) 2012 for outstanding contributions to the study of animal behaviour
UK Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year Award (2013)
Undergraduate Teaching
- Coordinator & Lecturer on Level 1 module APS126 Behaviour of Humans and other Animals.
- Coordinator & Lecturer on Level 3 module APS327 History and Philosophy of Science.
Key Research Interests
I have three main research areas:
- Post-copulatory sexual selection, mainly in birds.
- Population biology of birds.
- The history of science, and of reproduction and ornithology in particular.
Professional Activities (1995 onwards)
- Organiser of the Biology of Spermatozoa biennial meetings ( 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011). The next meeting will take place Monday 9 September to Friday 13 September 2013 at Hassop Hall, nr Bakewell, Derbyshire. For further details please contact Lisa Knight l.knight@sheffield.ac.uk.
- Leverhulme Research Fellowship (1995-1996)
- President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology (1996-1998)
- Winner of Consul Cremer Prize for 'The Red Canary' 2003
- Winner of 'Best Bird Book of 2009' for 'The Wisdom of Birds'
- Tim's TED lecture on the origins of ornithological science: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_birkhead_the_wisdom_of_birds.html
- Founder (with Mark Cocker, Jeremy Mynott and John Fanshawe) of New Networks for Nature www.newnetworksfornature.org.uk
- Curator of the Alfred Denny Museum (1980-present) (see also: Cabinet of Curiosities events, in the Sheffield Festival of the Mind)
- President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) (2013-2016)
Speaker at the following meetings
Annual Open Lecture, University of Kent, Canterbury: Darwin and Sexual Selection, Feb 2013
Annual Research Lecture, Oxford Brookes University, March 2013
Cornell University, Department of Behaviour & Neurobiology: talk on Darwin and Post-copulatory sexual selection, Nov 2012
Stamford Raffles Lectures, Zoological Society of London, June 2012
Niko Tinbergen Lecture, Leiden, May 2012
Royal Society London: Lecture on Francis Willughby, March 2012
Invited speaker History of Science meeting, University of Exeter 2010
The Witherby Lecture, British Trust for Ornithology 2010
Plenary speaker 2010: John Ray meeting, Society for the History of Natural History
Guest speaker at inauguration of 'The Society of Biology' (renamed Institute of Biology), Belfast, N. Ireland, April 2010
Current Research Group and Students
Nicola Hemmings (2011-2016)
ERC funded: Sperm transport
email n.hemmings@sheffield.ac.uk
Research Students
Clair Bennison (2009-2013)
NERC Funded PhD student: genetics of sperm
email: bop09cb@sheffield.ac.uk
Rebecca Bastin (2012-2015)
ERC funded: Evolution of the female tract
email: r.bastin@sheffield.ac.uk
Technicians
Phil Young
Research Technician
email: phil.young@sheffield.ac.uk
Lynsey Gregory
Research Technician
email: l.gregory@sheffield.ac.uk
Gemma Smith
Research Technician
email: gem.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Jamie Thompson
Research Technician
email: jamie.thompson@sheffield.ac.uk
Tim Birkhead has supervised a total of 37 PhD students and has acted as external examiner for the degree of Ph.D. at the following universities:-
Oxford (1983), Liverpool (1983), Glasgow (1984), Cambridge (1984), Durham (1984), Open University (1984), Cambridge (1985), Sussex (1985), Memorial University, Newfoundland (1987), Oxford (1987), Glasgow (1987), Cambridge (1988), Oxford (1988), Aberdeen (1989), Leicester (1989), Glasgow (1989), Oxford (1990), Oxford (1991), Leicester (1992), Stirling (1992), St. Andrews (1992), Nottingham (1994), Cambridge (1994), Oslo (Norway) (1994), Open University (1995), Oxford (1995), Uppsala (1995), York (1996), Oslo (1996), Melbourne, Australia (1997), Leicester (1997), Paisley College (1997), Glasgow (1997), Oslo, Norway (1998 x 2), Glasgow (2000). Sterling (2001) La Trobe, Australia (2002), Flinders, Australia (2003), Dalhousie, Canada (2003), Brisbane, Australia (2003), Oslo (2006) and many others.
Recent Publications
Parker, G.A. & Birkhead, T.R. 2013 Polyandry: the history of a revolution. Phil. Trans. R, Soc. B 368 20120335 doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0335
Mossman, J.A., Slate, J., Birkhead, T.R., Moore, H.D.M. & Pacey, A.A. 2012 Sperm speed is associated with sex bias of siblings in a human population. Asian Journal of Andrology 2012: 1-3
Immler, S., Griffith, S.C., Zann, R. & Birkhead, T.R. 2012 Intraspecific variation in sperm morphometry: a comparison between wild and domesticated zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata. Ibis 154: 480-487
Hemmings, N., Slate, J. & Birkhead, T.R. 2012 Inbreeding causes early death in a passerine bird. Nature Communications 3: 863-870
Meade, J., Hatchwell, B.J., Blanchard, J., Birkhead, T.R. 2012 The population increase of common guillemots on Skomer Island is explained by intrinsic demographic properties. J.Avian Biology 43:001-007
Immler, S., Pitnick, S., Parker, G. A., Durrant, K. L, Lupold, S., Calhim, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2011. Resolving variation in the reproductive trade-off between sperm size and number. PNAS, 108: 5325-5330
Birkhead, T. R., Hemmings, N., Spottiswoode, C. N., Mikuclica, O., Moskat, C., Ban, M. & Schulze-Hagen, K. 2011. Internal incubation and early hatching in brood parasitic birds. Proc. R. Soc. B., 278: 1019-1024.
Topfer, T., Haring, E., Birkhead, T. R., Lopes, R. J., Severinghaus, L. L., Martens, J. & Packert, M. 2011. A molecular phylogeny of bullfinches Pyrrhula Brisson, 1760 (Aves:: Fringillidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 58: 271-282.
Lupold, S., Wistuba, J., Damm, O., Rivers, J. W. & Birkhead, T. R. 2011. Sperm competition leads to functional adaptations in avian testes to maximise sperm quality and quantity. Reproduction, 141: 595-605
Go to page 2 of Prof Tim Birkhead's website
Teaching
APS126 Behaviour of humans and other animals