Animal and Plant Sciences

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

Undergraduate Teaching

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1. Coordinator for the degree in Animal Behaviour.
2. Coordinator & Lecturer on Level 1 module APS126 Behaviour of Humans and other Animals.
3. Coordinator & Lecturer on Level 3 module APS327 History and Philosophy of Science.

Key Research Interests

I have three main research areas:

1. Post-copulatory sexual selection, mainly in birds. My main objectives are to understand (a) the adaptive significance of sperm design, (b) the mechanisms of sperm utilisation by females.
2. Population biology of birds.
3. The history of science, and of reproduction and ornithology in particular.

Professional Activities (1995 onwards)

1. Organiser of the Biology of Spermatozoa biennial meetings ( 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009)
2. Leverhulme Research Fellowship (1995-1996)
3. President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology (1996-1998)
4. Winner of Consul Cremer Prize for 'The Red Canary' 2003

Speaker at the following meetings

Edinburgh Book Festival August 2008 `The Wisdom of Birds´

Speaker at Paul Ward memorial meeting, Zurich, Switzerland, October 2008

Plenary Speaker at the `Natur´ Conference (Welsh Institute of Countryside and Conservation Management), Wales, November 2008

Cambridge Bird Club: 9 January 2009. Title: `The Wisdom of Birds´.

BirdLife International, Cambridge: 15 January 2009 `The History of Ornithology´.

Knutsford Bird Club, Cheshire: 6 February 2009. Title: `The Wisdom of Birds´.

Café Scientifique: Salisbury 10 February 2009. Title: "Love and Sexual Selection´.

Sheffield Bird Study Group 11 February 2009: Title: `An ornithological feast – how we know what we know about birds´.

University of Exeter, Falmouth, departmental seminar, 19 February 2009. Title: `Reproductive diversity: A Darwinian perspective´.

Invited speaker at Darwin bicentenary celebrations: 27 March 2009 Bath University. Title: `The evolution of promiscuity – what can birds tell us about ourselves?´

Recent and Forthcoming Meetings

Hay on Wye Book Festival 31 May 2009 `The Wisdom of Birds´

Plenary Speaker: Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB), Oxford September 2009: `Darwin and Sex´

Plenary Speaker: American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Atlanta, USA, October 2009: `Darwin and Sexual Selection´

Speaker: British Thoracic Society, London December 2009: `200 years of evolution´

Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, 9 December 2009: `Evolution of Promiscuity´

Current Research Group and Students

Post Doctoral Fellows

Jo Wimpenny (2009-2012)
Leverhulme funded: History of Ornithology

Research Students

Nicola Hemmings (2007-2010)
(NERC funded PhD Student) Sperm selection in birds

Technicians

Clair Bennison (2009-2012)
NERC Funded PhD student: genetics of sperm

email : c.bennison@sheffield.ac.uk

Phil Young
Research Technician

email : phil.young@sheffield.ac.uk

Tim Birkhead has supervised a total of 30 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).

Recent Publications (2001 to date)

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.

Votier, S. C., Birkhead, T. R., Oro, D., Trinder, M., Grantham, M. J., Clark, J., McCleery, R. H. & Hatchwell, B. J. 2008. Recruitment and survival of immature seabirds in relation to oil spills and climate variability. Journal of Animal Ecology, 77, 974-983.

Calhim, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2007. Testes size in birds - quality vs quantity: assumptions, errors and estimates. Behavioral Ecology 18: 271-275.

Immler, S., Moore, H. D. M., Breed, W. G. & Birkhead, T. R. 2007. By hook or by crook? Morphometry, competition and cooperation in rodent sperm. PLoS ONE, 1: e170, 1-5.

Brennan, P. L., Prum, R. O., McCracken, K. G., Sorenson, M. D., Wilson, R. E. & Birkhead, T. R. 2007. Coevolution of male and female genital morphology in waterfowl. PLoS ONE, 5: e418, 1-6.

Birkhead, T. R., Pellat, E. J., Matthews, I. M., Roddis, N. J., Hunter, F. M., McPhie, F., Castillo-Juarez, H. (2006) Genic capture and the genetic basis of sexually selected traits in the zebra finch. Evolution, 60, 2389-2398

Birkhead, T. R., Immler, S., Pellatt, E., J. & Freckleton, R. J. (2006). Unusual sperm morphology in the European bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula. Auk, 123: 383-392.

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

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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,

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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.

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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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