Beth Shapiro


Beth Alison Shapiro is an American evolutionary molecular biologist. She is a Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Shapiro's work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2006.

Early life and education

Shapiro was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and grew up in Rome, Georgia, where she served as the local news presenter while still in high school. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 1999 with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in ecology. The same year she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford for research on inferring evolutionary history and processes using ancient DNA supervised by Alan J. Cooper.

Career and research

Shapiro was appointed a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Oxford in 2004. The same year she was appointed director of the Henry Wellcome Biomolecules Centre at Oxford, a position she held until 2007. In 2006 she was awarded a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship. While at the Biomolecules Centre Shapiro carried out mitochondrial DNA analysis of the dodo.
Shapiro's research on ecology has been published in leading journals including Molecular Biology and Evolution, PLOS Biology, Science and Nature. In 2007, she was named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of 37 young American innovators under the age of 36.

Publications

Selected peer reviewed publications in scientific journals and books include: