Jack Ashby

Jack Ashby was born in London. He is the Assistant Director of the University of Cambridge's Museum of Zoology, and former Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London. After studying zoology at the University of Cambridge, he entered a career engaging people with the natural world through museums.

His key zoological interest is in the Australian mammals, and the history of how the West came to understand and represent them. His work more broadly explores the biases influencing how nature is presented to the world, particularly through museums and their colonial legacies. His books, Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums (2025), Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals (2022) and Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects combine these scientific and social stories. His book Platypus Matters won the Zoological Society of London’s award for communicating zoology and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales' 2022 Whitley Award for best natural history book.

He is President of the Society for the History of Natural History, a trustee of the Natural Sciences Collections Association, and an Honorary Research Fellow in UCL Science and Technology Studies.