Who is Prof. Shelley Edwards?
Personal Description
Associate Professor
Deputy Dean of Science
Head of ZEML
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I am an evolutionary biologist, and this knowledge base is drawn on in my research, my teaching, and my engagement with communities. I have been trained as a scientist to be a critical thinker and I approach my life in the same manner that I approach my science – with a sceptical and an enquiring mind. My parents always encouraged me to explore different aspects of life, including scientific and artistic avenues, and this has moulded me to become a scientist who uses multiple techniques in my work. I am keen to learn new things and improve on my knowledge base by learning new techniques.
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I completed my undergraduate degree (BSc – Biodiversity and Ecology) and postgraduate degrees (BSc (Honours) and MSc) at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), during which I was exposed to learning in my second language of Afrikaans. This experience gave me a deeper understanding of students that undergo the same difficulties that are associated with needing to learn the jargon of a discipline in a language that is perhaps unfamiliar or is their second language, and the daunting task of translating the knowledge back into their home language. By the time I completed my undergraduate degree, I felt that I finally knew the direction that I would like to take in my professional career: as a behavioural ecologist working on large mammals in an academic arena. As always, life had other plans, and I found myself working instead on the genetics of small mammals during my Honours degree – a slightly right-angled direction compared to where I thought I would be heading. Luckily, this first taste of the molecular world ignited a passion for the minute that has not left me yet. My Master’s degree included working on the genetics of a different small mammal, but also introduced me to new techniques to investigate the body shapes of animals (geometric morphometrics). The exploration of these new techniques truly solidified my drive to become an evolutionary biologist and what a journey it has been!
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My doctoral work used a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the speciation processes in lacertid lizards. The approaches I employed included phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses, compared to the lizards’ morphologies (body shapes), performance (bite force and running speeds), diet and ecology. The main aim of my doctoral work was to investigate what factors influence the changes in body morphology in lizards and possibly be able to relate these results to broader biological questions; such as what drives speciation, and how well will species be able to adapt to environments in a changing climate. My post-doctoral work took on a more conservation-oriented approach by identifying the potential factors that may be influencing development in an endangered toad, endemic to the Cape Peninsula (South Africa), and that may potentially be a factor in the decline in their population numbers. These endeavours led me to yearn to be a ‘true’ researcher – one that was embroiled wholly in the academic world – and so my search began for vacancies as a researcher at an academic institution. Rhodes University advertised a temporary teaching position for a molecular biologist (my field of interest), preferably with a focus on vertebrate biology (my taxon of choice), and I started working as a temporary lecturer in February 2015. The position was advertised as a permanent lecturing post in August of the same year, and in September 2015 I got the job! In January 2019, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and was also awarded tenure simultaneously. In January 2023, I was promoted to Associate Professor. From 1 July 2024, I have been appointed as Deputy Dean of Science (Research Portfolio).
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I am the research head of the molecular laboratory (ZEML) in the Department of Zoology & Entomology and have supervised a number of undergraduate and postgraduate projects thus far (see sections below). My skill-set is varied and includes field work, laboratory work, and statistical analyses. Having received two research grants from the NRF (South African National Research Foundation) and the FBIP (Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme) in 2017, I have initiated five separate research projects that investigate the phylogenetic relationships within three snake species, one lizard species, and one family of spiders. These projects are in collaboration with researchers at local museums (Port Elizabeth Museum and Albany Museum) and at international institutes. I have had the privilege of visiting various laboratories and museums, both locally and in Europe, including the Laboratoire de Biogéographie et Ecologie des Vertébrés (Montpellier, France), the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France), the Berlin Natural History Museum (Berlin, Germany) and a number of local museums (Ditsong Museum, Port Elizabeth Museum, Albany Museum, Amathole Museum, Iziko Museum). These collaborations not only allow for interaction and communication between different research groups across the continents, but also facilitate new skills being introduced into South African academia, and for my students to experience new and different perspectives in our field. As an added bonus, collaborative work between institutions allows for the advertisement of our institution to perspective postgraduate students, and also allows for an avenue of communication for our students who wish to broaden their horizons by studying at a different institution.
Research activities and dissemination
As a product of my research, I have published six articles as first author at present and fifteen as a co-author, with three manuscripts currently submitted for review. I have many more manuscripts in preparation; some that are collaborations between myself and researchers at University of the Western Cape, University of the Free State, CIBIO (Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado; Portugal), Universidade do Porto, Port Elizabeth Museum, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB), South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB); amongst others. I have also published a book chapter entitled “Convergence in morphology is preceded by convergence in performance in lizards”. I have been an associate editor for the journal Cogent Biology and am still an associate editor for the African Journal of Herpetology (2017-present). I have attended and presented at a number of local and international conferences, including the World Congress of Herpetology, in Vancouver, Canada (2012), in Hangzhou, China (2016) and in Dunedin, New Zealand (2020). These products are tangible evidence of the quality of the research that I have conducted, but more than that, they are the culmination of years of study and enquiry. By no means are they the end-points of my research career, as each paper or conference presentation is merely a prelude to more intensive, and hopefully more applicable, research to be conducted by myself and my research group.
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In addition to the research conducted during my postgraduate and post-doctoral years, I have also contributed to the institutes where I was registered, in the role of elected student representative (twice) and being the organiser of seminar presentations, and in this capacity, I instigated various scientifically oriented social get-togethers at SANBI. I have served or chaired a number of committees; namely: the Herpetological Association of Africa committee, Faculty of Science Board member at Rhodes University, Chair of the Departmental Ethics Subcommittee (Department of Zoology & Entomology), and Chair of the Rhodes University Animal Research Ethics Committee. I have also given a number of talks on the biology and conservation of reptiles to the public and to visiting undergraduate classes from the Dalhousie University (Canada). I am also one of the founding members of the Grahamstown Science Café. One of our research projects sprang up around the callouts that we receive from the public to remove snakes from their properties. In short, I am passionate not only about investigating the ‘big questions’ (how did species get here?), but also in informing the public about our incredible biodiversity in Africa, and try to encourage them to ask another big question in their own lives: ‘How can I contribute to conserving animals and plants?’.
I hope to continue investigating convergence in the phenotypes of animals (particularly herpetofauna (reptiles and frogs) and arachnids), and the discordance with genetics, as well as the evolutionary aspects of those animals. I am keenly interested in the effect that an organism’s genes have on its behaviour and phenotype, and the influences of the environment on the speciation processes of global, and specifically African, fauna.
Conservation of our natural heritage is of utmost importance, and I would like to contribute in a meaningful way to these endeavours.
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