| Beth Shapiro | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 Allentown, Pennsylvania, US |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University, Oxford University |
| Alma mater | University of Georgia, Oxford University |
| Known for | examination and analysis of ancient DNA |
| Notable awards | MacArthur Fellowship (2009) |
Beth A. Shapiro (born 1976[1]) is an American evolutionary molecular biologist. She has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University since 2007. Shapiro's work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009.[1]
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Shapiro was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania[2] and grew up in Rome, Georgia, where she served as the local news anchor while still in high school.[3] She graduated from the University of Georgia in 1999 with both a B.A. and an M.A. in ecology.[1] The same year she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.[3] In 2003 Shapiro received a D.Phil. in biology from Oxford University.[1]
Shapiro became a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at Oxford in 2004. The same year she was appointed director of the Henry Wellcome Biomolecules Centre at Oxford. A position she held until 2007. In 2006 she was awarded a University Research Fellowship by the Royal Society. While at the Biomolecules Centre Shapiro carried out mitochondrial DNA analysis of the dodo. [4]
Shapiro has written on ecology for a number of journals including Science, Molecular Biology and Evolution and PLoS Biology. In 2007, she was named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of 37 young American innovators under the age of 36.[5]