astronomy

H. Bradley Shaffer

H. Bradley Shaffer is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand H. Bradley Shaffer rather than just read about it. In short: Howard Bradley “Brad” Shaffer (born 26 October 1953), sometimes also cited as Howard B. Shaffer, Jr. or in publications most often as H.

Key takeaways

H. Bradley Shaffer belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect H. Bradley Shaffer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of H. Bradley Shaffer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Howard Bradley “Brad” Shaffer (born 26 October 1953), sometimes also cited as Howard B. Shaffer, Jr. or in publications most often as H. Bradley Shaffer, is an American herpetologist, geneticist, and conservation biologist.

Biography Shaffer received his Bachelor of Science degree in June 1976 from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1982, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago with the dissertation Evolution in a highly paedomorphic lineage: A case study of the Mexican ambystomatid salamanders. From 1983 to 1984 he was a postdoctoral researcher under Russell Lande and William Archley, and also a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. From 1984 to 1985 he served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago. From 1985 to 1987 Shaffer was Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine. From 1987 to 2012 he was Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor, and finally full Professor at the University of California, Davis. He is now Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and since 2012, Director of the La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science. His research focuses on the evolution, ecology, and conservation biology of amphibians and reptiles. Current projects of his laboratory include comparative phylogeography of amphibians and reptiles in California and the central United States, systematics of freshwater and land turtles in Australia, California, and other parts of the world, and conservation genetics of threatened Californian amphibians and reptiles. In 2013, Shaffer led an international team of 59 biologists that published the first complete turtle genome. Shaffer has described several new amphibian species, including Nyctibatrachus aliciae (1984), Nyctibatrachus minor (1984), Oreolalax multipunctatus (1993) and Lithobates kauffeldi (2014). In 2000, he erected the new monotypic turtle genus Leucocephalon for the Sulawesi forest turtle (Leucocephalon yuwonoi). Since 2003 Shaffer has been a member of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group and since 2007 of the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. From 2013 to 2015 he was treasurer of the Society of Systematic Biologists. In 2014 he served as president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. From 2018 to 2021 he was treasurer of the American Genetic Association, of which he had been president in 2010. Since 2012 he has been on the editorial board of the journal Journal of Heredity. In 2013 he authored the entry on Neoteny in Brenner’s Encyclopedia of Genetics. In 2016 the work California Amphibian and Reptile Species of Special Concern was published, to which he contributed as co-author. In 2022 Shaffer was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2026, he became a co-editor of the journal Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics.

Selected works Shaffer, H. B. (2013). "The western painted turtle genome, a model for the evolution of extreme physiological adaptations in a slowly evolving lineage". Genome Biology. 14 (3): R28. doi:10.1186/gb-2013-14-3-r28. PMC 4054807. PMID 23537068.

References

External links Faculty profile at UCLA Curriculum vitae via Yumpu

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with H. Bradley Shaffer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what H. Bradley Shaffer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to H. Bradley Shaffer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about H. Bradley Shaffer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of H. Bradley Shaffer

In research: H. Bradley Shaffer appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses H. Bradley Shaffer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: H. Bradley Shaffer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, American conservationists, American geneticists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for H. Bradley Shaffer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study H. Bradley Shaffer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what H. Bradley Shaffer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain H. Bradley Shaffer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is H. Bradley Shaffer in simple terms?

Howard Bradley “Brad” Shaffer (born 26 October 1953), sometimes also cited as Howard B. Shaffer, Jr. or in publications most often as H.

Why does H. Bradley Shaffer matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study H. Bradley Shaffer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on H. Bradley Shaffer.