Dr John Baird
Senior 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.
Senior 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
I have two PhD students working at the James Hutton Institute, carrying out entomological research.
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Teaching Responsibilities
Degree Programme Coordinator for MSci Biological Sciences and BSc Biology
Courses Taught:
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:
BI2012/13 Diversity of Life. Lectures and projects on insects.
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.
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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Publications
Contributions to Journals
Articles
- Sharp, L., Little, J., Schofield, AC., Pavlidou, E., Cotton, SC., Miedzybrodzka, ZH., Baird, J., Haites, NE., Heys, SD. & Grubb, DA. (2002). 'Folate and breast cancer: the role of polymorphisms in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR)'. Cancer Letters, vol 181, no. 1, pp. 65-71.
[Online] DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3835(02)00030-7
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