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Lore & Background

Richard Shine was born in Brisbane. He attended schools in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra, and completed his university studies at the Australian National University with an Honours degree in zoology in 1971. His PhD was obtained from the University of New England in Armidale, under the supervision of Professor Harold F. Heatwole, and dealt with the field ecology of Australian venomous snakes. It was the first detailed ecological research on these animals. He also began working on broader questions in evolutionary biology, collaboratively with another student, James J. Bull, currently a Professor in Biology at the University of Idaho. His brother is scientist John Shine. Uniquely, both brothers are Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, have received awards from that body, and have won the nation’s top award in research, the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science (John in 2010, Rick in 2016). Shine conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (1976 to 1978) in the research groups of Professor Eric Charnov and Professor John M. Legler. He returned to Australia to take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Sydney (with Professor Charles L. Birch and Dr. Gordon C. Grigg) in 1978, and was appointed to a lectureship at that institution in 1980. He became a Research Associate of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1988. He was appointed to a Professorship at the University of Sydney in 2003, having relinquished undergraduate teaching to concentrate on research and graduate training in 2002, under fellowships from the Australian Research Council (Australian Professorial Fellowship 2002-2005; Federation Fellowship 2006-2010; Laureate Fellowship 2013-2018). After 40 years at The University of Sydney, Shine took up a position at Macquarie University in December 2018.

Reader's Guide

Shine's early research focused on the ecology of snakes, and on the evolutionary factors that have shaped patterns in reptile reproduction (such as the transition from egg-laying to live-bearing, and the evolution of size differences between the sexes, and the selective milieu driving variation in reproductive traits). His initial studies were based mostly in Australia, and mostly with venomous snakes, but he later conducted research on the behavioural ecology of snakes in several parts of the world, notably on red-sided gartersnakes Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis in Canada, vipers Vipera berus in Sweden and France, island pit vipers Gloydius shedaoensis in China, seasnakes Laticauda and Emydocephalus annulatus in the Pacific islands, and reticulated pythons Python reticulatus in Indonesia. He also dissected thousands of preserved snakes in museum collections to document basic natural history patterns of hundreds of species from Australia, the Pacific, and southern Africa. The arrival of the invasion front of the highly toxic cane toad (Bufo marinus or Rhinella marina) at the tropical study site in 2005 prompted a major expansion of the research program. With colleagues Benjamin L. Phillips and Gregory P. Brown, Shine proposed that the evolutionary acceleration of the toad invasion was caused by a process different from the adaptive processes envisaged by mainstream evolutionary biology. The new explanation relied upon spatial sorting of traits that affected dispersal rates of toads, with only the fastest-moving individuals being able to stay near the increasingly rapidly moving invasion front. Research by Shine’s group (“Team Bufo”) also measured ecological impacts of invasive cane toads, revealing a complex pattern whereby some native species benefit rather than suffer from toad invasion. Shine (in collaboration with Michael Crossland and Robert Capon) found that the cannibalistic nature of cane toad tadpoles can be turned against them. Within the first year of its use by community groups, this method is thought to have removed more than a million cane toad tadpoles from natural waterbodies. Beginning in 2023, Shine and his team also began exploring the use of genetic modification (via CRISPER-Cas9) as a means of toad control. Shine also suggested a new method of buffering the impact of cane toads on vulnerable native predators, by releasing small cane toads at the invasion front (to induce taste aversion). Although initially greeted with skepticism, field studies validated its effectiveness and the method is now being widely applied in northwestern Australia. Shine has published more than 1100 papers in professional journals, attracting more than 90,000 citations. He has written five books (Australian Snakes. A Natural History, 1998; Cane Toad Wars, University of California Press, 2018; So Many Snakes, So Little Time, CRC Press, 2022; Snakes Without Borders, Reed New Holland, 2024; Science in the Snakepit, Reed New Holland, 2025) and co-edited another.

Did You Know?

• Shine's PhD was the first detailed ecological research on Australian venomous snakes.
• Both Rick Shine and his brother John Shine are Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science and have won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science (John in 2010, Rick in 2016).
• Shine is the only person to have won three Eureka Prizes in different categories (2011, 2013, and a third).
• Within the first year of use by community groups, a cane toad tadpole trapping method developed by Shine's team is thought to have removed more than a million cane toad tadpoles from natural waterbodies.
• Shine has published more than 1100 papers in professional journals, attracting more than 90,000 citations.