Geoffrey Allan Boxshall FRS (born 13 June 1950) is a British

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, and Merit researcher at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

, working primarily on

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

Early life

Son of Jack Boxshall a Canadian bank manager and Sybil Boxshall (née Baker), a civil servant in the procurement department of the Ministry of Defence. He was educated at

Churcher's College Churcher's College is an independent, fee-charging day school for girls and boys, founded in 1722. The Senior School (ages 11–18) is in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire with the Junior School and Nursery (ages 2 years, 9 months–11) ...

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

from 1961 to 1968. He was Vice Captain of College 1967–1968 and Captain of the Hockey XI 1968. He played rugby (open-side flanker) for Hampshire County in both the 1966–1967 and 1967–1968 seasons.

Career

Field

Boxshall is a whole organism biologist with a particular interest in copepod crustaceans. These are ubiquitous in aquatic systems but all radiated from a hyperbenthic origin in shallow marine waters. Multiple lineages of copepods colonised the open pelagic, fresh and subterranean waters, and colonised almost all other metazoan phyla as hosts as they adopted parasitism as a mode of life. The overarching aim of his research is to identify and understand the drivers generating the patterns of copepod biodiversity on the largest scales. His current focus is primarily on parasites: the repeated evolution of parasitism in copepods provides opportunities to examine the usage of different host taxa and to explore speciation patterns around major host colonisation or host switching events.

Academic achievements

He earned a First Class BSc in Zoology in 1971, and PhD in 1974, from the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

Awards

In 1994 he became a Fellow of The Royal Society and in 1998, he was awarded the Crustacean Society's ''Award for Excellence in Research''.

Appointments

In 1974 he joined the Natural History Museum's Department of Zoology, and joined Life Sciences in 2014. Boxshall has been the Secretary of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

since 2011 and was Vice-President of the Linnean Society Council from 2012–2013.

Works

*Rony Huys, Geoffrey Allan Boxshall, ''Copepod evolution'', Ray Society, 1991, * * *Geoffrey Allan Boxshall, Sheila H. Halsey, ''An introduction to copepod diversity'', Volume 2, Ray Society, 2004, An Introduction to Copepod Diversity – 0903874318 9780903874311: NHBS: Geoffrey A Boxshall and Sheila H Halsey
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References

External links

Publications by Boxshall at World Register of Marine Species
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxshall, Geoffrey British carcinologists Alumni of the University of Leeds Fellows of the Royal Society Living people People educated at Churcher's College 1950 births British parasitologists