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
Eliot 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
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)
- 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 (link to follow)
Speaker at the following meetings
Speaker at Mate Choice and Sexual Selection: integrating research on humans and other species. Kavli Royal Society International Centre 26-27 August 2010.
Plenary Speaker at Sexual Selection: Integrating Behaviour and Genomics. Bath 1-2 September 2010
Speaker at Pocklington School, York, talk to 6th formers on sexual selection. 5 October 2010.
Speaker: John Ray meeting. Society for the History of Natural History, London. 3 November 2010
Speaker: EMBL - EMBO Differences between the Sexes: from Biology to Behaviour. Heidlberg, 5-6 November 2010
The Witherby Lecture, British Trust for Ornithology, Swanwick. 4 December 2010.
Departmental Seminar Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield. 10 December 2010
Invited speaker, History of Science Workshop. Exeter 16 December 2010
Current Research Group and Students
Post Doctoral Fellows
Jo Wimpenny (2009-2012)
Leverhulme funded: History of Ornithology
email j.wimpenny@sheffield.ac.uk
Nicola Hemmings (2011-2016)
ERC funded: Sperm transport
email n.hemmings@sheffield.ac.uk
Chad Smith
(2011 - 2016) ERC funded: sperm energetics
email chad.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Research Students
Clair Bennison (2009-2012)
NERC Funded PhD student: genetics of sperm
email : bop09cb@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
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
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, in press.
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, in press.
Parker, G. A., Immler, S., Pitnick, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2010. Sperm competition games: Sperm size (mass) and number under raffle and displacement, and the evolution of P2. J. theor. Biol. 264, 1003-1023.
Durrant, K. L., Dawson, D. A., Burke, T. & Birkhead, T. R. 2010. The unusual sperm morphology of the Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhulapyrrhula) is not due to the phenotypic effects of genetic reduction. Auk, 127, 832-840.
Warren, W. et. al. 2010. The genome of a songbird. Nature, 464, 757-762.
Monaghan, P. & Birkhead, T. R. 2010. Who's the daddy? New Scientist, 205 (No. 2749), 36-39.
Birkhead, T. R. & Pizzari, T. 2009. Sperm competition and female fertility. In: Biology of Breeding Poultry (Ed. by Hocking, P.). Oxford: CABI.
Lupold, S., Calhim, S., Immler, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2009. Sperm morphology and sperm velocity in passerine birds. Proc. R. Soc. B., 276, 1175-1181.
Lupold, S., Linz, G. M. & Birkhead, T. R. 2009. Sperm design and variation in the New World blackbirds (Icteridae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol, 63, 391-402.
Lüpold, S., Linz, G. M., Rivers, J. W., Westneat, D. F. & Birkhead, T. R. 2009. Sperm competition selects beyond relative testes size in birds. Evolution, 63, 391-402.
Birkhead, T. R., Hall, J., Schut, E. & Hemmings, N. 2008. Unhatched eggs: methods for discriminating between infertility and early embryo mortality. Ibis, 150, 508-517.
Brennan, P. L., Birkhead, T. R., Zyskowski, K., Waag, J. v. d. & Prum, R. O. 2008. Independent evolutionary reductions of the phallus in basal birds. J. Avian Biology, 39, 487-492.
Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2008. Plasticity in reproductive phenotypes reveals status specific correlations between behavioural, morphological and physiological sexual traits. Evolution, 62, 1149-1161.
Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2008. Changes in sperm quality and numbers in response to experimental manipulation of male social status and female attractiveness. Am. Nat., 170, 758-770.
Immler, S., Calhim, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2008. Increased postcopulatory sexual selection reduces the intra-male variation in sperm design. Evolution, 62, 1538-1543.
Stapley, J., Birkhead, T. R., Burke, T. & Slate, J. 2008. A linkage map of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata provides new insight into avian genome evolution. Genetics, 179, 651-667.
Birkhead, T. R., Pellatt, E., J., Brekke, P., Yeates, R. & Castillo-Juarez, H. (2005). Genetic effects on sperm design in the zebra finch. Nature,434, 383-387
Votier, S.C., Hatchwell, B.J., Beckerman, A., McCleery, R.H., Hunter, F.H., Pellatt, J., Trinder, M., Birkhead T.R. (2005) Oil pollution and climate have wide-scale impacts. Ecology Letters, 8: 1157–1164.
Birkhead, T.R., Chaline, N., Biggins, J.D., Burke, T.A. & Pizzari, T. (2004). Non-transitivity of paternity in a bird. Evolution, 58: 416-420.
Pizzari, T., Cornwallis, C,K, Lovelie, H., Jakobsson, S. & Birkhead, T.R. (2003). Sophisticated sperm allocation in male fowl, Nature 426; 70-74,
Hunter, F. M. & Birkhead, T. R. 2002. Sperm viability and sperm competition in insects. Current Biology, 12, 121-123.
Pizzari, T. & Birkhead, T. R. 2002. The sexually selected sperm hypothesis: sex-biased inheritance and sexual antagonism. Biological Reviews, 77, 183-210.
Froman, D. P., Pizzari, T., Feltmann, A. J., Castillo-Juarez, H. & Birkhead, T. R. 2002. Sperm mobility: mechanisms of fertilising efficiency, genetic variation and phenotypic relationship with male status in the fowl, Gallus g. domesticus. Proceedings of Royal Society of London, Series B., 269, 607-612.
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Go to page 2 of Prof Tim Birkhead's website
Teaching
APS126 Behaviour of humans and other animals
APS327 History and Philosophy of Science