Stamford Raffles Lecture 2012

19 Jun 2012 – 6:15 pm - 9:30 pm

This event has taken place

Darwin, Sex and Sexual Selection

Darwin's concept of sexual selection transformed our understanding of animal behaviour. Although Darwin knew that the males of many species are promiscuous, he assumed females to be monogamous. Didn't he know it takes two to tango? Darwin missed a trick. We now know that promiscuity is common among females and knowing this has changed our view of many aspects of reproduction and helps to explain the remarkable diversity in copulatory behaviour, anatomy and physiology.

Professor Tim Birkhead

Tim Birkhead is a behavioural ecologist whose studies of promiscuity and sperm competition in birds helped to re-shape our understanding of avian mating systems. After obtaining degree in Zoology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1972, he conducted his doctoral research at the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford, on the population biology and behaviour of common guillemots. In 1976 he took up a position at the University of Sheffield, where he has been ever since. Tim became a Fellow of The Royal Society in 2004, was President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology from 1996-1998, and has served on the management committee of the Darwin Correspondence Project. He was a Nuffield Research Fellow (1990-91) and a Leverhulme Research Fellow in 1996. In recognition of the global influence of his research he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union in 2010, and was awarded their Elliot Coues Medal in 2011. As well as a passion for research, Tim is committed to undergraduate, graduate and public education. Tim has written or edited 12 books, including Sperm Competition in Birds (1992, Academic Press; with A. P. Møller), Sexual Selection and Sperm Competition (1998, Academic Press; edited with A. P. Møller), and Sperm Biology (2009, Elsevier; edited with D. Hosken and S. Pitnick). These three books have defined the modern study of sperm biology from an evolutionary perspective. His popular science books include Promiscuity (2000, Faber & Faber),, The Red Canary (2003, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; awarded the Consul Cremer Prize) and The Wisdom of Birds (2009 Bloomsbury), an illustrated account of the history of ornithology, or as he prefers to say: how we know what we know about birds: http://wisdomofbirds.co.uk won the ‘bird book of the year award’ from the British Trust for Ornithology and British Birds. His most recent popular book Bird Sense: What it’s like to be a Bird was published in 2012.

This lecture will be preceded by the ZSL Scientific Awards presentation ceremony

Ticket prices
Full rate: £20.
Student/ZSL Friends and Fellows rate: £15.
A canapé reception will follow the lecture.
We regret that tickets for this event have now sold out
Registration deadline is June 8th. We regret that no refunds will be possible for places cancelled after this date.*

Further information: please contact Megan Orpwood-Russell, Scientific Events Coordinator, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London NW1 4RY.
Tel:+44 (0)20 7449 6227. Fax: +44 (0)20 7449 6411. E-mail: megan.orpwood-russell@zsl.org