Rate My Professor Anastasia Shavrova

Dr Anastasia Shavrova is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales. She holds a PhD in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from UNSW, with a dissertation examining sexual conflict, mating, and reproduction, specifically how females can evolve against harmful males. She earned an MSc in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from Queen’s University in Canada, where her dissertation focused on life-history trade-offs in early and late life reproduction, and a BSc (Honours) in Animal Behaviour and Conservation from the same institution, with honours research on changes in metamorphosis of Ontario frog species due to a changing climate. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Shavrova’s research specializations include sexual selection and evolution, animal behaviour, and behavioural ecology. Beyond her academic appointments at UNSW and prior studies at Queen’s University, she is active as a science communicator, producing and hosting the podcast Convos with Chordates, writing blogs on academic success, and appearing on radio programs and at festivals including Splendour in the Grass, the Sydney Comedy Festival, and the World Science Festival. She has received awards such as the Ecology and Evolution Research Centre Award for Outstanding Student Service, runner-up in the Ecology and Evolution Research Centre Award for Student Outreach, and placements in 3 Minute Thesis competitions at school, provincial, and university levels, along with the Queen’s University Graduate Award and the Wes and Dorletta Curran Award. A 2024 publication includes the paper 'Using Rhodamine to Tag Mites for Studies of Pre- and Post-Copulatory Sexual Selection' in Ecology and Evolution.