Ashley Ward
My Work
Academic
I’m Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Sydney, where my research focusses on the social behaviour of animals including krill, fish, birds and mammals. I don’t limit myself to this topic, however – I’m equally interested in learning, communication and decision-making in animals. See my contact information below and get in touch.
Author
My first popular science book, The Social Lives of Animals (published previously as an audiobook under the title Animal Societies), was published in early 2022. I followed this up with a book about the senses (see below) which was released in 2023. I’ve recently finished my third book and, since I hate having spare time, I’m now working on a fourth and a fifth.
News
I’m excited to announce that my latest book, Saltwater: A Natural History of the Sea, will be released on November 12 this year. More details to follow…
My previous book, Sensational, was released in 2023
In the US, it was released as Where We Meet The World…
…and I’m delighted to announce that it’s now available in translated form in Korea, Italy, Portugal, China, and Türkiye
Our senses are what make life worth living. They allow us to appreciate a sip of an ice-cold drink, the sound of laughter, the touch of a lover. But only recently have incredible advances in sensory biology given us the ability to understand how and why our senses evolved as they did. In Where We Meet the World, biologist Ashley Ward takes readers on a breathtaking tour of how our senses function. Ward looks at not only the five major senses—vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch—but also a host of other senses such as balance and interoception, the sense of the body’s internal state. Drawing on new research, he explores how our senses interact with and regulate each other, and he uncovers what we can learn from how other animals—and even bacteria—encounter the world.
Meanwhile my previous book, The Social Lives of Animals, was released in 2022…
Translated versions of The Social Lives of Animals are available in Japan, Korea, China, Italy, Poland, Spain and Türkiye
About Me
I’ve been fascinated with animals and their behaviour since I was a child, fossicking in streams, under logs or peering into rockpools. Eventually, I turned it into a career as a biologist and, most recently, as an author.
Using a scientific framework to answer the questions of how and why animals do what they do excites me as much as ever, even now, twenty years since starting my PhD
Address
School of Life and Environmental Science
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW
Australia
ashleyward.net 