Dr Beth Mortimer

Beth is currently a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Associate Professor in Animal Biology. She has led the Animal Vibration Lab in the Department of Biology since 2019. She is a tutorial fellow in Biology at Hertford College, Oxford. Beth is also a National Geographic Explorer since 2018 and a Research Associate of Save the Elephants.

Her research is at the interface of biology, materials science and engineering, using physical sciences techniques to answer biological questions about information transfer through materials. Beth attained her Bachelors in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford. Following this, she gained teaching experience, receiving a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Oxford Brookes University. Her DPhil in Zoology (2010-2014) was based in the Oxford Silk Group looking at spider and silkworm silks as biological materials.

Upon completion of her DPhil, she was a Career Development and Access Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford (2014-2016), which involved both research and access work with UK schools. Following this, she was an 1851 Research Fellow and an honorary research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol (2016-2019) researching vibrational communication in animals, from spiders to elephants and insects to nematode worms. Beth was a Departmental Lecturer in Biology at the Zoology Department at Oxford 2018-2019 and a Drapers' Company Junior Research Fellow at St Anne's College 2017-2020.