Professor Tim Birkhead

FRS

School of Biosciences

Emeritus Professor

t.r.birkhead@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 4622
B1 206, Alfred Denny Building

Full contact details

Professor Tim Birkhead
School of Biosciences
B1 206
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
91̽»¨
S10 2TN
Profile
  • BSc (1972) University of Newcastle; DPhil (1976) University of Oxford
  • Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Zoology, University of 91̽»¨ (1976-92)
  • Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of 91̽»¨ (1992-2019)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society 2004
  • Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of 91̽»¨ (2019 - present)
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.

For info on Tim's long term study of guillemots on Skomer Island, click . If you wish to donate, visit his  page.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Organiser of the  biennial meetings (1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015). The meetings are now being organised by a steering group of BoS led in 2017 by Dr Rhonda Snook.
  • 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
  • TED lecture on the origins of ornithological science: 
  • Founder (with Mark Cocker, Jeremy Mynott and John Fanshawe) of New Networks for Nature 
  • Honorary Curator of the Alfred Denny Museum (1980-present) (see also: )
  • President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (2013-2016)
Awards

Research

  • Fellow of the Royal Society (2004).
  • Elliot Coues medal, for outstanding and innovative contributions to ornithological research (2010).
  • ASAB medal (Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour), for outstanding contributions to the study of animal behaviour (2012).
  • Godman-Salvin Medal, for 'distinguished ornithological work' by the British Ornithologists' Union (2016).
  • Founders' Medal of the Society, for the Study of the History of Natural History (SHNH), for contributions to the history and bibliography of natural history (2016).
  • Elected Honorary Member of the German Ornithological Society (2017).

Undergraduate Teaching

  • Senate Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching (2007).
  • Teacher of the Year Award, Animal & Plant Sciences (2009).
  • UK Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year Award (2013).
  • National Teaching Fellowship (2017).

Communicating science to the public

  • Zoological Society of London Silver Medal, for contributions to the understanding and appreciation of zoology, including such activities as public education in natural history (2014).
  • Eisenmann Medal (Linnaean Society of New York), for excellence in ornithology and encouragement of the amateur (2015).
  • Stephen Jay Gould Prize, for increasing public understanding of evolutionary biology (2017).
  • Zoological Society of London’s Clarivate Analytics Award, for Communicating Zoology to a general audience for my book The Most Perfect Thing (2017).