Dr John Baird
Teaching Fellow
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+44 (0)1224 272881
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john.baird@abdn.ac.uk
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Room 205, Zoology Building, University of Aberdeen.
Teaching Fellow
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Personal Details
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Biography
I was late coming to science having spent some years in the RAF Regiment and having been a steel erector and a store manager. I graduated with First Class Honours in Zoology from the Queen's University in Belfast, following which I did my PhD in predatory flatworms. After this I moved to Aberdeen to work on transmission-blocking vaccines. I've been working as a Teaching Fellow since 2005 and as well as spending much of my time teaching undergraduate students, I still maintain my interest in mosquitoes and insects in general. I've been a member of the Royal Entomological Society for several years and I maintain a stock of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes on which I experiment. Along with a colleague I have recently developed a new elite degree programme for undergraduates in the School of Biological Sciences, the MSci in Biological Sciences.
Outside of work, the time for which there seems to be less and less, I go to concerts (the orchestra and the likes of St Vincent and Goldfrapp), play football, paddle my kayak and generally keep fit. I'm partial to a beer in The Machar Bar on a Friday evening too.
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Research Interests
Currently looking at altering the behaviour of Yellow Fever mosquitoes using various chemicals.
Also interested in the life histories of mayflies and the possible negative effects of Global Warming.
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Teaching Responsibilities
Access Level
Course Coordinator for AX15B1 Access and Foundation Studies in Biological Science
Level 1:
Course Co-ordinator for BI1005 Organismal Biology. Lectures on the challenges faced by animals in various environments. We have introduced a Personal Response System (PRS) onto the course, which enables us to get immediate feedback from the students during lectures. Each Friday, we have a guest lecture slot at which researchers, who work in various environments, present their findings
Level 2:
BI25Z1 Invertebrate Life. Lectures on control systems and symbiosis.
BI2506 Research Skills. Tutorials centred on exercise and disease.
Level 3:
ZO3010 Animal Evolution and Biodiversity. Lectures on evolution of sex, mammals, birds and humans.
ZO3810 Biology and Control of Infectious Diseases. Lectures on principles of disease and malaria. Practical on vectors of disease.
TB3503 Tropical Forest and Savannah Ecology. Lecture on mosquitoes.
Level 4:
ZO4526 Advances in Vector Biology. Lectures and tutorial on gnetic modification.
ZO4802 Parasitology. Lectures on malaria, dengue, helminths, drug treatments and vaccines.
Supervision of honours students
Level 5:
Workshops for MSci students.
Supervision of MSci projects
Field courses:
Ecology Field Course in Malham, Yorkshire.
Administrative duties:
Induction Co-ordinator for the College of Life Sciences and Medicine and an Advisor of Studies.
Sit on the College of Life Sciences and Medicine Teaching and Learning Committee, Chair the College of Life Sciences and Medicine Induction Strategy Group and a member of the Promoting Science Working Group.
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External Responsibilities
Reviewer for Pest Management Science.
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Selected Publications
Billingsley PF, Baird J, Mitchell JA, Drakeley, C. Immune interactions between mosquitoes and their hosts
PARASITE IMMUNOLOGY 28 (4): 143-153 APR 2006
Baird J, Fairweather I, Murchie AK
Long-term effects of prey-availability, partnering and temperature on overall egg capsule output of 'New Zealand flatworms', Arthurdendyus triangulatus
ANNALS OF APPLIED BIOLOGY 146 (3): 289-301 2005
Baird J, McDowell SDR, Fairweather I, Murchie, A.K.
Reproductive structures of Arthurdendyus triangulatus (Dendy): Seasonality and the effect of starvation
PEDOBIOLOGIA 49 (5): 435-442 2005
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