Trying to contact me? My email address is catherine (dot) sheard (at) bristol (dot) ac (dot) uk. Physically I'm based at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. I can also be found on Twitter.
Me, currently:
Me, previously:
Me, my papers:
Me, my hobbies:
I like to learn fun new languages and chase after fun new birds. At various points in my life I've been an avid outdoorswoman, a puzzle hunt geek, a board game aficionado, and a keen creative writer. I do my best to give back to my academic community, particularly through involvement with initiatives to broaden diversity and inclusion in STEM.
Me, in photographic form:
Me, currently:
- postdoc (2019-present) in the Benton Lab at the University of Bristol, studying tetrapod macroevolution
Me, previously:
- postdoc (2017-2019) in the Laland Lab at the University of St Andrews, studying the macroecological and macroevolutionary dynamics of parental care across taxa
- research support assistant (2016-2017) in the excd.lab with Prof. Fiona Jordan at the University of Bristol, a hybrid role between postdoctoral researcher, academic administrator, and science communication officer, applying phylogenetic comparative methods to the study of human linguistic and cultural norms of kinship
- DPhil (2012-2016) in Zoology at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford with Prof. Nathalie Seddon and Dr. Joseph Tobias on the roles of social and ecological traits in shaping global avian biodiversity, funded by the Oxford Clarendon Fund and the US-UK Fulbright Commission
- BS (2008-2012) in Mathematics and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Yale University
- six semesters as a research assistant in the Pama-Nyungan Lab with Prof. Claire Bowern on the linguistic ethnobiology of hunter-gatherer Aboriginal Australian groups
- three semesters independent research in the Jetz Lab on the biogeography of nocturnality in birds and mammals
- three semesters as a museum collections assistant in entomology and herbarium divisions of the Yale Peabody Museum
- field experience in Ecuador, Panama, and Namibia
- summer internship at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Research Base
- summer cultural exchange fellowship from the US State Department for research and language study in Indonesia
- two summers helping to run Canada-USA Mathcamp
- six semesters as a research assistant in the Pama-Nyungan Lab with Prof. Claire Bowern on the linguistic ethnobiology of hunter-gatherer Aboriginal Australian groups
Me, my papers:
- best bet is Google Scholar
Me, my hobbies:
I like to learn fun new languages and chase after fun new birds. At various points in my life I've been an avid outdoorswoman, a puzzle hunt geek, a board game aficionado, and a keen creative writer. I do my best to give back to my academic community, particularly through involvement with initiatives to broaden diversity and inclusion in STEM.
Me, in photographic form:
(Me + a Greater Bird-of-Paradise, Paradisaea apoda, in the collections of the Natural History Museum at Tring.)
(Me, pretending that I'm a field biologist in Devon.)
