Linnean Medal (2020) Academia Europaea (2020) Ben C. Sheldon is the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology and Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology of the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology.

His research addresses causes and consequences of individual variation in wild populations, particularly of birds.

He was awarded the 2020 Linnean Medal for "his service to science in the field of Zoology", and elected as Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.

Sheldon obtained his BA in Natural Sciences (Part II Zoology) at University of Cambridge, where lectures from Prof Nick Davies in Behavioural Ecology were particularly influential, and his PhD in Zoology from the University of Sheffield, under the supervision of Prof Tim Birkhead.

[1] Sheldon was appointed Head of the Edward Grey Institute in 2002, following the retirement of Prof Chris Perrins and elected as the first holder of the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology in 2004.