Ian Newton (born 17 January 1940) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Education and early life

Newton was born and raised in north

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

and was educated at

Chesterfield Grammar School Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituen ...

. He graduated from the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

.Ian Newton , Collins
. The New Naturalists Online. Retrieved 3 December 2009 He received his D.Phil. in 1964 and D.Sc. in 1982 from the University of Oxford, and has studied a wide range of bird species.

Career and research

He has been interested in birds since his childhood. As a teenager he became particularly fascinated by

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

es and undertook doctoral and post-doctoral studies on them. Newton conducted a 27-year study of a

Eurasian sparrowhawk The Eurasian sparrowhawk (''Accipiter nisus''), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred ...

population nesting in southern

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, which resulted in what many consider to be the most detailed and longest-running study of any population of birds of prey. Before retirement, he was Senior Ornithologist at the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British Research Councils UK, research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several envir ...

. He has also been head of the Avian Biology Section at the Monks Wood Research Station (1989–2000), Chairman of the Board of

The Peregrine Fund The Peregrine Fund (named after the bird of prey of the same name the peregrine falcon) is a non-profit organization founded in 1970 that conserves threatened and endangered birds of prey worldwide. The successful recovery of the peregrine falcon ...

, Chairman of the Council of the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

,Newton, I. (2009) Introduction. ''In'' R.T. Watson, M. Fuller, M. Pokras, and W.G. Hunt (Eds.)
Ingestion of Lead from Spent Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans

, Boise, Idaho, USA. DOI 10.4080/ilsa.2009.0091 Chairman of Saving India's Vultures from Extinction, and visiting professor of ornithology at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

.Ian Newton. The Migration Ecology of Birds
. Buteo Books. Retrieved 3 December 2009 Newton has also held the positions of President of the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker ...

and the

British Ecological Society The British Ecological Society is a learned society in the field of ecology that was founded in 1913. It is the oldest ecological society in the world. The Society's original objective was "to promote and foster the study of Ecology in its widest ...

(1994–1995).Ian Newton
Researcher Results.

. Retrieved 3 December 2009

Partial bibliography

*''Finches'' ( Collins New Naturalist Library) (1972) *''Population Ecology of Raptors'' (1979) T & A.D. Poyser. *''The Sparrowhawk'' (1986) T & A.D. Poyser. *''Population Limitation in Birds'' (1998) *''The Speciation and Biogeography of Birds'' (2003) *''The Ecology of Bird Migration'' (2007) *''Bird Migration'' (Collins New Naturalist Library) (2010) (HB), (PB) *''Bird Populations'' (Collins New Naturalist Library) (2013) *''Farming and Birds'' (Collins New Naturalist Library) (2017) *''Uplands and Birds'' (Collins New Naturalist Library) (2020)

Honours and awards

Union Medal of the British Ornithological Union The Union Medal is a medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, given "in recognition of eminent services to ornithology and to the Union and ornithology." From 2019 it is to be known as the "Janet Kear Union Medal", after Janet Kear, with a new ...

(1988) * Gold Medal of the

(1991) * Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 1993 *

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1994) * Elliot Cowes Award of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

(1995) *

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(1999) * President's Medal of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Ian 1940 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh English biologists English ornithologists English science writers New Naturalist writers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Presidents of the British Ornithologists' Union Presidents of the British Ecological Society People educated at Chesterfield Grammar School