Dr Peter Richard Sheldon

Dr Peter Sheldon is an Honorary Associate in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Open University, where he was a Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences. He has given over 80 residential courses in geology, palaeontology and evolution for PACE since 1979. Dr Sheldon has taught for the Cambridge International Summer Programme since 2016 and for the Diploma in Evolutionary Biology since 2017. From 2008 to 2011 he was External Examiner for Scientific Studies at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, where he has given over 50 day-schools since 1993.

His teaching style usually combines fieldwork, hands-on study of real specimens of rocks, minerals and fossils, and interactive lectures. He chaired the Open University course on Geology and has contributed to many other OU courses, including Fossils and the History of Life, Evolution, Earth’s Physical Resources, Discovering Science, The Geological History of the British Isles and Earth Science. He is well known for research on evolutionary patterns in the fossil record and the relationship between evolution and environmental change.