Frederick Halsey "Fred" Sheldon (born 14 December 1951) is an American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Early years

Sheldon was born a US citizen at Hörsching in

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

. He was educated at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

where he obtained a BS degree in Geology & Geophysics in 1974 and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in Biology in 1986.

Career

Sheldon has served in various academic positions, most notably as Curator of Birds at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and Curator of Genetic Resources at the Museum of Natural Science

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU). He became a full curator/professor at LSU in 2000, and is currently Director of the Museum of Natural Sciences. His main areas of research interest are avian systematics and evolution, and the natural history of the birds of the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

, especially those of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

Publications

As well as numerous scientific papers, especially in the area of

molecular phylogenetics Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

and ornithology, publications authored or coauthored by Sheldon include: * 1986 – ''A Study of the Evolution and Phylogeny of the Herons (Ardeidae) Using DNA-DNA Hybridization''. PhD thesis, Yale University. * 2001 – ''Ornithology of Sabah: History, Gazetteer, Annotated Checklist, and Bibliography''. (With Robert G. Moyle and Jody Kennard). AOU Ornithological Monographs 52. American Ornithologists’ Union.

References

American ornithologists Living people 1951 births Yale University alumni Louisiana State University faculty American science writers {{US-ornithologist-stub