Alexander L. Bond is a Canadian conservation biologist, ecologist, and curator. He is a senior curator at the

Natural History Museum at Tring The Natural History Museum at Tring was the private museum of Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild; today it is under the control of the Natural History Museum, London. It houses one of the finest collecti ...

Education

Bond completed a B.Sc. with honors in biology from Mount Allison University in 2005 and published a thesis titled Daytime spring migrations of

scoter The scoters are stocky seaducks in the genus ''Melanitta''. The drakes are mostly black and have swollen bills, the females are brown. They breed in the far north of Europe, Asia, and North America, and winter farther south in temperate zones o ...

s ('' Melanitta'' spp.) in the Bay of Fundy. He earned an M.Sc. from

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Ameri ...

in 2007. His thesis was entitled ''Patterns of mercury burden in the seabird community of Machias Seal Island, New Brunswick''. Bond completed a Ph.D. in 2011 at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His thesis there was called ''Relationships between oceanography and the demography & foraging of auklets (

Charadriiformes Charadriiformes (, from ''Charadrius'', the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water an ...

Alcidae An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...

: ''Aethia''; Merrem 1788) in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

''. He was a

NSERC The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...

Visiting Fellow in Government Laboratories, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada from 2013 – 2014 and a NSERC post-doctoral fellow at the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

from 2011 to 2013.

Career

Bond is a conservation biologist with a focus on the marine environment and island biology. His current specialisations include conservation, contaminants, invasive species, plastic, seabirds and stable isotopes. He was a NSERC visiting fellow at

Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ...

from 2013 to 2014. From 2014 to 2017, he was a senior conservation scientist for the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thr ...

at the Centre for Conservation Science. Bond was an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan School of Environment and Sustainability from 2014 to 2019. until 2023 he was an honorary researcher at the

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) is a teaching and research institute of the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania. IMAS was established in 2010, building upon the university's partnership with CSIRO Oceans and Atmos ...

and is a primary research member of the Adrift Lab, both based in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia. Bond is a senior curator of birds in the department of life sciences at the

. Since 2012, Bond is a subject editor of ''

Avian Conservation and Ecology The Society of Canadian Ornithologists, or Société des Ornithologistes du Canada, is an ornithological non-profit organization serving Canada’s ornithological community. It was founded in 1983, and is a member of the Ornithological Council. Th ...

''. Since 2013, Bond has written and blogged on science and Queer in STEM topics using the name The Lab and Field; he also uses this name on Twitter. He is part of the 500 Queer Scientists campaign, and co-chair and administrator of LGBTQ+ STEM. In 2020 Bond and Beth Montague-Hellen shared the Royal Society Athena Prize for his work with LGBTQ+ STEM. In 2020, he took part in the inaugural QatCanSTEM colloquium at Dalhousie University in Canada. Since 2021, Bond has been the Ornithologist-in-Residence at St. Nicholas's Church, Leicester. Bond is most noted for his work on

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

in oceans and especially the health effects on seabirds.

Personal life

Due to being gay, Bond and his partner decided to not pursue graduate school or positions located in the United States, opting instead for Canada or the United Kingdom.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Alex Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Canadian LGBT scientists Mount Allison University alumni University of New Brunswick alumni Memorial University of Newfoundland alumni Academic staff of the University of Tasmania Employees of the Natural History Museum, London Canadian curators Canadian ecologists Conservation biologists 21st-century Canadian biologists Canadian expatriate academics in the United Kingdom Canadian expatriates in Australia Canadian expatriates in England Gay academics Gay scientists 21st-century Canadian LGBT people Canadian gay writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian science writers Canadian LGBT academics