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 University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education since 1979. Dr Sheldon has also taught for the Cambridge International Summer Programme since 2016 and for the Diploma in Evolutionary Biology from 2017 to 2023. He has given over 60 day-schools for Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education since 1993, and from 2008-2011 was their External Examiner for Scientific Studies.

His teaching style usually combines interactive lectures with hands-on study of real specimens of rocks, minerals and fossils, and fieldwork when possible. 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.