Richard Dawkins

=== Education ===
[[File:Oundlegreathall.jpg|thumb|left|The Great Hall, [[Oundle School]]]]
On his return to England from Nyasaland in 1949, at the age of eight, Dawkins joined [[Chafyn Grove School]], in [[Wiltshire]],<ref>Alister E. McGrath, ''Dawkins' God: From The Selfish Gene to The God Delusion'' (2015), p. 33</ref> where he says he was molested by a teacher.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ohlheiser |first1=Abby |title=Richard Dawkins Defends 'Mild' Pedophilia, Again and Again |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/richard-dawkins-defends-mild-pedophilia-again-and-again/311230/ |website=The Atlantic |access-date=3 April 2024 |language=en |date=11 September 2013}}</ref> From 1954 to 1959 attended [[Oundle School]] in [[Northamptonshire]], an English [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] with a [[Church of England]] ethos,<ref name="Darwin's child"/> where he was in Laundimer House.<ref name="Oundle2012b">{{cite web |ref=CITEREFOundle2012b |url=http://www.oundleschool.org.uk./extracurric/lectures.php |title=The Oundle Lecture Series |publisher=[[Oundle School]] |year=2012b |access-date=12 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430063443/http://www.oundleschool.org.uk/extracurric/lectures.php |archive-date=30 April 2012}}</ref> While at Oundle, Dawkins read [[Bertrand Russell]]'s ''[[Why I Am Not a Christian]]'' for the first time.{{sfn|Dawkins|2015|p=175}} He studied [[zoology]] at [[Balliol College, Oxford]] (the same college his father attended), graduating in 1962; while there, he was tutored by [[Nobel Prize]]-winning ethologist [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]]. He graduated with a second-class degree.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3657215/Preaching-to-the-converted.html |title=Preaching to the converted |journal=Daily Telegraph |last=Preston |first=John |date=17 December 2006 |access-date=9 May 2019 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=9 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509210248/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3657215/Preaching-to-the-converted.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dawkins continued as a research student under Tinbergen's supervision, receiving his [[Doctor of Philosophy]]<ref name=dawkins>{{cite thesis |degree=DPhil |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=Selective pecking in the domestic chick |publisher=University of Oxford |date=1966 |url=http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph020515491 |website=bodleian.ox.ac.uk |access-date=8 November 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060816/http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=SOLO&docid=oxfaleph020515491&context=L&search_scope=LSCOP_OX |url-status=live }} {{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.710826}}</ref> degree by 1966, and remained a research assistant for another year.<ref name="cv">{{cite web |url=http://www.fontem.com/archivos/usuarios/cv_521.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103225115/http://www.fontem.com/archivos/usuarios/cv_521.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 November 2012 |title=Curriculum vitae |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |date=1 January 2006 |access-date=13 March 2008 |ref=none}}</ref><ref name="cv2">{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.shtml |title=Richard Dawkins: CV |date=1 January 2006 |access-date=1 March 2007 |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423211133/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.shtml |archive-date=23 April 2008 |ref=none}} For direct link to media, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20070225195322/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.pdf this link]</ref> Tinbergen was a pioneer in the study of animal behaviour, particularly in the areas of [[instinct]], learning, and choice;<ref name="Shrage">{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Schrage |title=Revolutionary Evolutionist |date=July 1995 |url=https://www.wired.com/1995/07/dawkins/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=21 April 2008 |archive-date=29 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429065556/http://www.wired.com/1995/07/dawkins/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Dawkins's research in this period concerned models of animal decision-making.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=A threshold model of choice behaviour |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=17 |year=1969 |doi=10.1016/0003-3472(69)90120-1 |pages=120–133 |issue=1}}</ref>