Marian Stamp Dawkins One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born Marian Ellina Stamp; 13 February 1945) is a British

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and professor of

ethology Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Her research interests include vision in birds, animal signalling, behavioural synchrony,

animal consciousness Animal consciousness, or animal awareness, is the quality or state of self-awareness within a non-human animal, or of being aware of an external object or something within itself. In humans, consciousness has been defined as: sentience, aware ...

and

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...

Education

Dawkins was educated at

Queen's College, London Queen's College is an independent school for girls aged 11–18 with an adjoining prep school for girls aged 4–11 located in the City of Westminster, London. Founded in 1848 by theologian and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice along wit ...

and

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

where she earned bachelor's and PhD (1970) degrees. Her doctoral research was supervised by

Niko Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the or ...

Career and research

Dawkins was appointed a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

in zoology in 1977 and in 1998 was made

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of Animal Behaviour. She is currently (2014) Head of the Animal Behaviour Research Group and is the Director of the

John Krebs John Richard Krebs, Baron Krebs, Kt FRS (born 11 April 1945) is an English zoologist researching in the field of behavioural ecology of birds. He was the principal of Jesus College, Oxford, from 2005 until 2015."Elliott Coues Award, 1999: Si ...

Field Laboratory. Dawkins has written extensively on animal behaviour and issues of

. Along with other academics in the field, such as Ian Duncan, Dawkins promoted the argument that animal welfare is about the

feelings of animals Emotion is defined as any mental experience with high intensity and high hedonic content. The existence and nature of emotions in non-human animals are believed to be correlated with those of humans and to have evolved from the same mechanisms. ...

. This approach indicates the belief that animals should be considered as sentient beings. Dawkins wrote, "Let us not mince words: Animal welfare involves the subjective feelings of animals. In 1989, Dawkins published a study in which she filmed hens from above while they performed common behaviours (e.g. turning, standing, wing-stretching). From these films, she calculated the amount of floor-space required by the hens during these behaviours and compared this to the amount of floor-space available in

battery cage Battery cages are a housing system used for various animal production methods, but primarily for egg-laying hens. The name arises from the arrangement of rows and columns of identical cages connected together, in a unit, as in an artillery batt ...

s. She was able to show that many of these common behaviours were highly restricted, or prevented, in battery cages. In 1990, she contributed to a paper in which she developed her ideas regarding how to assess animal welfare by asking questions of animals. She proposed using

preference test A preference test is an experiment in which animals are allowed free access to multiple environments which differ in one or more ways. Various aspects of the animal's behaviour can be measured with respect to the alternative environments, such ...

s and consumer demand studies to ask what animals prefer (e.g. space, social contact) and how highly motivated they are for these. She argued that animals were more likely to suffer if they were not provided with resources for which they are highly motivated. Central to her most recent (2012) view on animal welfare is scepticism about whether science can establish that animals have

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and therefore its role in definition and measurement of animal welfare and suffering. Instead, her view is that good animal welfare rests on determining the needs and wants of animals, which do not require that they are conscious. These theses are presented in her book ''Why Animals Matter: Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being'' (2012). Her views on animal consciousness have been criticised by evolutionary biologist

Marc Bekoff Marc Bekoff (born September 6, 1945 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American biologist, ethologist, behavioural ecologist and writer. He was a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder for 32 years. He cofounded ...

, who argues that she too readily rejects

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

research on animals. She responded to the criticism by stating her position as "wrongly interpreted", and says that "my concern is to make the case for animal emotions as watertight as possible and thereby to strengthen it. That is the way science progresses and always has."

Selected publications

* ''Animal Suffering: The Science of Animal Welfare''.

Chapman and Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

. 1980. * ''Unravelling Animal Behaviour.''

Longman Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...

. 1986. * ''The Tinbergen legacy.'' Edited by Marian Stamp Dawkins, Tim R. Halliday and Richard Dawkins. London:

Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

. 1991. * ''Through Our Eyes Only?: The Search for Animal Consciousness''. Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. 1993. * ''Living with the Selfish Gene.'' One of the collected essays in '' Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think''. Editors:

Alan Grafen Alan Grafen is a Scottish ethologist and evolutionary biologist. He currently teaches and undertakes research at St John's College, Oxford. Along with regular contributions to scientific journals, Grafen is known publicly for his work as co-edit ...

Mark Ridley Mark Ridley may refer to: * Mark Ridley (physician) (1560–1624), English physician and mathematician * Mark Ridley (zoologist) (born 1956), English zoologist See also * Mark Ridley-Thomas Mark Ridley-Thomas is an American politician. He prev ...

. Oxford University Press. 2006.
''The scientific basis for assessing suffering in animals.''PDF Version
Chapter in ''Peter Singer: In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave''. Malden, MA:

Blackwell Blackwell may refer to: Places ;Canada * Blackwell, Ontario ;United Kingdom * Blackwell, County Durham, England * Blackwell, Carlisle, Cumbria, England * Blackwell (historic house), South Lakeland, Cumbria, England * Blackwell, Bolsover, Alfre ...

. 2006. * ''Observing Animal Behaviour: Design and Analysis of Quantitative Data''. Oxford:

. 2007. * ''The Future of Animal Farming: Renewing the Ancient Contract.'' Edited by Marian Stamp Dawkins and Roland Bonney. Malden, MA:

. 2008. * ''An Introduction to Animal Behaviour.'' With Aubrey Manning. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. 2012. * ''Why Animals Matter: Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being.'' Oxford:

. 2012.

Awards and honours

Dawkins was awarded the

RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...

/British Society for Animal Protection prize in 1991, Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour's

Medal in 2009, and the World Poultry Science Association Robert Fraser Gordon Medal in 2011. Dawkins was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to animal welfare. In 2014, she was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) for “substantial contributions to the improvement of natural knowledge”.

Personal life

She was born in Hereford to Arthur Maxwell Stamp and (Alice) Mary Stamp (née Richards). On 19 August 1967, she married fellow ethologist

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

in the Protestant church in

Annestown Annestown () is a coastal village in County Waterford, Ireland on the Copper Coast between Dungarvan and Tramore made up of around 25 cottages and houses built on a steep hill. Sports It is a destination for surfers Surfing is a surfac ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...

, Ireland.Richard Dawkins
''An Appetite for Wonder – The Making of a Scientist''
p.201. They divorced in 1984. She remains known as Marian Stamp Dawkins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawkins, Marian 1945 births 20th-century biologists 21st-century biologists Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Animal cognition writers British animal welfare scholars British women biologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English biologists Ethologists Female Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Living people People educated at Queen's College, London Place of birth missing (living people)