Josephine Pemberton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Josephine Pemberton FRS
Pemberton in 2017
Alma mater	University of Oxford (BA) University of Reading (PhD)
Awards	Molecular Ecology Prize (2011) EMBO Member (2014) Fellow of the Royal Society (2017) Darwin-Wallace Medal (2018)
Scientific career
Fields	Evolutionary biology Molecular ecology
Institutions	University of Edinburgh University of Cambridge
Thesis	An investigation into the population genetics of British fallow deer (Dama dama L.) (1983)
Doctoral advisor	Robert H. Smith
Other academic advisors	Sam Berry

Josephine M. Pemberton is a British scientist. She studies how living things change over time. This field is called evolutionary biology. She is a top professor at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Pemberton researches how animals are related. She also looks at how they inherit traits. She studies how animals resist sickness. Her work helps us understand how animal groups change. She has mainly studied soay sheep and red deer. These animals live on islands in Scotland.

Becoming a Scientist

Josephine Pemberton went to two universities. She studied at the University of Oxford. There, she learned about Zoology, which is the study of animals.

Later, she earned her PhD degree. This was from the University of Reading in 1983. Her research was about the genes of fallow deer. Her professor, Robert H. Smith, guided her studies.

Research and Career

After getting her PhD, Josephine Pemberton continued her research. She worked at University College London. She also worked at the University of Cambridge.

In 1994, she became a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked there ever since. Her research has received funding from important science groups. These include the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). She also gets support from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Awards and Honours

Josephine Pemberton has received many awards. In 2011, she won the Molecular Ecology Prize. This award is for excellent work in studying genes in nature.

She became a member of EMBO in 2014. EMBO is a group of leading life scientists. In 2017, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honour for scientists in the UK.

In 2018, she received the Darwin-Wallace Medal. This medal is given for major advances in evolutionary biology. In 2020, she became the Chair of Natural History at her university.