Christine J Nicol

PeerJ Author

Summary

Professor of Animal Welfare at the Royal Veterinary College. Christine Nicol graduated from the University of Oxford with a first-class degree in Zoology in 1981, and a PhD (DPhil) in 1986 on the welfare of laying hens. In 1985 she was appointed to a lectureship in Animal Welfare, followed by a Professorship (2001) at the University of Bristol. She has also held visiting appointments at Merton College, Oxford (2000), and the University of Waikato (1994). In 2017 she took up honorary positions at the University of Oxford (Senior Research Associate) and the University of Lincoln (Visiting Professor) and, in 2018, a new appointment as Professor of Animal Welfare at the Royal Veterinary College.

She has been awarded the Prince Laurent Foundation prize for work on equine welfare (with Prof McGreevy) (2001), the UFAW medal for Outstanding Achievement in Animal Welfare Science (2012), the International Society for Applied Ethology 50th Anniversary Wood-Gush Memorial Award (2016), the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) A.M. Leroy Fellowship Award for outstanding scientific contribution (2016), the British Veterinary Association (BVA) 50th Wooldridge Memorial Medal (2016) and was the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, Tinbergen Lecturer (2017).

She is currently a member of Stevin Prize committee, the Swedish Formas grant assessment panel and the RSPB Ethics Council

Animal Behavior

Editorial Board Member

Past or current institution affiliations

University of Bristol

The Royal Veterinary College

Work details

Professor of Animal Welfare

Royal Veterinary College

December 2017

Pathobiology and Population Science

Current Research Projects A formal analysis of behavioural structure as a tool to assess the impact of chronic equine disease. Equine PhD studentship funded by the Horse Trust, with Freddie Daw, Charlotte Burn, Ruby Chang. Social buffering in horses. Equine PhD studentship with Claire Ricci-Bonot, Daniel Mills and Teresa Romero, University of Lincoln. The role of social support in reducing harmful stress responses in horses. Developing objective, robust, real-time animal welfare measures for the Australian meat industry. A project led by Dr Cameron Clark and Dr Sabrina Lomax, University of Sydney. Analysis of behavioural changes in beef cattle from birth to slaughter will be undertaken using cutting edge,robotic and ear-tag based technologies. Smart Farming - Monitoring the Health of Chickens. With Maja Makagon, University of Davis, California. The aim of this project is to develop and and validate small, bird mounted acoustic sensors and complementary analysis systems for monitoring changes in the health, welfare and locations of individual birds housed in commercial flocks. Patterns of Sleep Behaviour in Chicks. With Lorna Wilson, University of Bath. The aim of the project is to describe and quantify patterns of sleep behaviour in chicks and relate these patterns to other indicators of welfare.