biology

Timothy Coulson

Timothy Coulson is a biology 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 Timothy Coulson rather than just read about it. In short: Timothy Neal Coulson FRSB, FBES FRS (Born 31 July 1968) is a biologist whose research focuses on how environmental change impacts the ecology and evolutionary biology of animals. He is the current Professor of Zoology and a Professorial Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and was until October 2024 joint head of the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Timothy Neal Coulson FRSB, FBES FRS (Born 31 July 1968) is a biologist whose research focuses on how environmental change impacts the ecology and evolutionary biology of animals. He is the current Professor of Zoology and a Professorial Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and was until October 2024 joint head of the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. Coulson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2026.

Life and career He held a series of positions becoming Professor of Population Biology at Imperial College London in 2007. He was appointed Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and professorial fellow of Jesus College Oxford in 2013. He was head of Department of Zoology, University of Oxford between 2018 and 2021 and joint head of Department of Biology, University of Oxford along with Mark Fricker from October 2022 to October 2024. Along with fellow University of Oxford academic, Professor Syma Khalid, Coulson cohosts the Science of the Times podcast. Coulson has been chief editor of Journal of Animal Ecology and Ecology Letters, a member of council of the University of Oxford, and is currently Vice President (membership) of the British Ecological Society. Coulson’s book The Universal History of Us was published on 13 June 2024 by Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books. The paperback version was published by the same publisher in May 2025 with the title A Little History of Everything . It was published in the United States on 6 July 2024 as The Science of Why We Exist by Pegasus Books. Coulson was the subject of an episode of The Life Scientific, broadcast by BBC Radio Four on 27 May 2025. He is married to a fellow Oxford Professor, Sonya M Clegg and has three children from a previous relationship (two daughters and one son). In July 2024, Coulson was a guest on the Off the Shelf podcast.

Awards and honours Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal (2007) Imperial College Post-graduate Huxley Memorial Medal (2008) Per Brinck Award (2012) Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2012) British Ecological Society Marsh Award (2012) Fellowship of the British Ecological Society (2025) Fellow of the Royal Society (2026)

Selected publications Coulson, T. et al. (2001). Age, sex, density, winter weather, and population crashes in Soay sheep. Science, 292(5521), 1528-1531. DOI: 10.1126/science.292.5521.1528 Cubaynes, S. ... & Coulson, T. (2022). Disease outbreaks select for mate choice and coat color in wolves. Science, 378(6617), 300-303. DOI: 10.1126/science.abi8745 Coulson, T., Mace, G. M., Hudson, E., & Possingham, H. (2001). The use and abuse of population viability analysis. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 16(5), 219-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(01)02137-1

References

External links Timothy Coulson publications indexed by Google Scholar

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Timothy Coulson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Timothy Coulson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Timothy Coulson 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 Timothy Coulson 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 Timothy Coulson

In research: Timothy Coulson appears in biology 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 Timothy Coulson 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: Timothy Coulson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 births, Academics of Imperial College London, Academics of the University of Oxford, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Timothy Coulson 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 Timothy Coulson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Timothy Coulson 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 Timothy Coulson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Timothy Coulson in simple terms?

Why does Timothy Coulson matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Timothy Coulson?

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 Timothy Coulson.