Associate Professor Timothy Schaerf

Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics - School of Science and Technology

Phone: +61 2 6773 5832

Biography

Dr Schaerf studied Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney from 1997 to 1998 before switching to a Bachelor of Science degree, primarily to pursue his interest in higher level applied mathematics. He completed his BSc with honours in applied mathematics (in 2000), and then his PhD (in late 2006) under the supervision of Associate Professor Charlie Macaskill, examining the accuracy of a numerical method (the Contour-Advective Semi-Lagrangian method) for simulating geophysical fluid motions, such as atmospheric vortices and subsurface oceanic eddies. From 2009 to 2012, Dr Schaerf worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory (bee lab) at the University of Sydney, under the supervision of Professors Madeleine Beekman and Mary Myerscough, and studied the processes that honey bees use to select their nest-sites. He then continued work as a postdoctoral researcher from 2013 to 2015 with Professor Ashley Ward in the Animal Behaviour Lab at the University of Sydney, with his work focussed on the collective behaviour of animals, and in particular how groups of animals coordinate collective movements. Dr Schaerf moved to UNE in late 2015 to take up a position as a lecturer in applied mathematics, and he has since been promoted to senior lecturer (effective from January 2019), and convenor for the disciplines of mathematics and statistics (effective from June 2022). Dr Schaerf has ongoing research interests in the modelling and analysis of collective animal motion, honey bee nest-site selection, and more broadly the modelling and analysis of biological processes.

Qualifications

BSc (Honours) (University of Sydney)
PhD (University of Sydney)

Teaching Areas

Precalculus
Computational mathematics
Calculus
Mathematical methods
Differential equations

Primary Research Area/s

Collective motion; Collective decision-making

Research Interests

I enjoy working on a number of topics connected to applied mathematics and mathematical biology including: understanding the mechanisms behind collective animal movement, including the movements of humans, fish, honey bees, and Antarctic krill; decision making and nest-site selection by honey bees; methods for estimating the density of feral honey bee colonies; dung beetle ecology; vortex dynamics; construction of amazing brood combs by stingless bees; the circumstances that allowed uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA to become ubiquitous; and, models for the spread of and competition within invasive species.

Research Grants

A. Ward, T. Schaerf, M. Wikelski, J. Krause, S. Krause, ARC Discovery Grant (DP190100660), 2019-2021: Understanding animals through their movement ($336000)

Research Supervision Experience

I have supervised one Master of Scientific Studies Thesis (SCI599) student and two PhD students to successful completion (one as primary supervisor, one as an auxiliary supervisor).

I am currently supervisor for two Master of Scientific Studies Thesis students, primary supervisor to one PhD candidate, and co-supervisor to five other PhD students.

Publications

Selected Recent Publications

P. Utaipanon, T. M. Schaerf, N. C. Chapman, M. J. Holmes, B. P. Oldroyd, Using trapped drones to assess the density of honey bee colonies: a simulation and empirical study to evaluate the accuracy of the method, Ecological Entomology, DOI: 10.1111/een.12949 (2020).

B. S. O. Alsaedi, C. M. McGraw, T. M. Schaerf, P. W. Dillingham, Multivariate limit of detection for non-linear sensor arrays, Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 104016 (2020).

A. D. M. Wilson, A. L. J. Burns, E. Crosato, J. Lizier, M. Prokopenko, T. M. Schaerf, A. J. W. Ward, Conformity in the collective: differences in hunger affect individual and group behavior in a shoaling fish, Behavioral Ecology, 30(4), 968-974 (2019).

P. Utaipanon, T. M. Schaerf, B. P. Oldroyd, Assessing the density of honey bee colonies at ecosystem scales, Ecological Entomology, 44(3), 291-304 (2019).

A. J. W. Ward, T. M. Schaerf, A. L. J. Burns, J. T. Lizier, E. Crosato, M. Prokopenko, M. M. Webster, Cohesion, order and information flow in the collective motion of mixed-species shoals, Royal Society Open Science, 181132 (2018).

A. J. W. Ward, J. E. Herbert-Read, T. M. Schaerf, F. Seebacher, The physiology of leadership in fish shoals: leaders have lower maximal metabolic rates and lower aerobic scope, Journal of Zoology, 305(2), 73-81 (2018).

S. Davis, R. Lukeman, T. M. Schaerf, A. J. W. Ward, Familiarity affects collective motion in shoals of guppies (Poecilia reticulate), Royal Society Open Science, 170312 (2017).

A. J. W. Ward, T. M. Schaerf, J. E. Herbert-Read, L. Morrell, D. J. T. Sumpter, M. M. Webster, Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals, Royal Society Open Science, 170043 (2017).

T. M. Schaerf, P. W. Dillingham, A. J. W. Ward, The effects of external cues on individual and collective behaviour of shoaling fish, Science Advances, 3, e1603201 (2017).

A. L. J. Burns, T. M. Schaerf, A. J. W. Ward, Behavioural consistency and group conformity in humbug damselfish, Behaviour, 154(13-15), 1343-1359 (2017).