Dr Ash Brockwell – Coming out as transgender in mid-career As a child, I always loved being outdoors – either in the garden, drawing pictures of flowers, or out on birdwatching trips with my dad or the Southampton Natural History Society. When I graduated from Oxford in 1999, I was lucky to have the opportunity to do an internship with the Global Initiative for Traditional … Continue reading Rainbow Research: Transgender Pride
Dr Cyren (Asteraceya) Wong talks to us about finding his place in nature. Most people know me as “Dr Cyren (Asteraceya) Wong” of Naturetalksback, but I did not always go by this name. I started coming out to my family and community at the age of 14. I believe they have always had my best interests at heart, but the pre-existing norms and values of … Continue reading Rainbow Research: LGBTQ2S, Indigenous Peoples & People of Colour
Bawan Amin, son of Kurdish freedom fighters talks about his latest publication in Functional Ecology “In utero accumulated steroids predict neonate anti-predator response in a wild mammal” as well the importance of asylum, family, and being able to pursue your passions. At the time of writing, I am about to start the final year of his PhD-research at University College Dublin, Ireland. Supervised by Dr. … Continue reading Bawan Amin: individual personality is evident from just a few weeks old
Originally posted on Methods Blog: We are inviting contributions from LGBTQ+ ecologists and evolutionary biologists for a series of blog posts across the British Ecological Society journals for UK Pride Month, which takes place in June. The series, called Rainbow Research, aims to promote visibility and inclusion of researchers from the LGBTQ+ community with posts promoting them and their research. Each post will be connected to… Continue reading Rainbow Research: Contribute to our Pride Month Blog Series!
Originally posted on The Applied Ecologist: The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge. “A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all… Continue reading International Women’s Day 2021: #ChooseToChallenge
Attending Festival of Ecology from a different timezone? Have a busy week? Never fear! There are hundreds of on demand talks, posters and activities you can get involved with. Here’s our pick from our own talented team of editor. Put the kettle on and tune in when you’re ready. Talks Effects of temperature on mating behaviour and mating success: a meta-analysis – Natalie Pilakouta Immediate … Continue reading Festival of Ecology – Functional Ecology On Demand Playlist
Nacho Villar, a post-doc at the Netherlands Institute of ecology, remembers the good times he had at Brazil, the challenges of running an animal exclusion experiment in the Brazilian Atlantic forest and how persistence, hard work and a little of cachaza are the key for a successful research. Frugivory underpins the nitrogen cycle. That’s what our latest work published at Functional Ecology shows. A game-changer for tropical … Continue reading Nacho Villar: the challenges of experimentally resolving the functional roles of large tropical forest herbivores
Hi, I’m Jhan! I’m an Afro-Colombian ecologist, and I’m a PhD student in Jonathan Losos’ Lab at Washington University in St Louis. My research is focused on exploring the effect that temperature and climate have on the ecology and evolution of tropical lizards. I was born in Puerto Tejada, Cauca (Colombia), and unlike many of my peers, the story of why I became an ecologist and evolutionary biologist started long before I went to university or even to school. When I was five years old, I went to the most beautiful place I have ever been: my parents and grandparents’ hometown. In this small town called Boca de Patía, which is also in the Cauca region, I saw for the first time a forest – a tropical rainforest – and met many of its unique inhabitants: snakes, poison dart frogs, and many other fantastic animals and plants. After being there I started watching as many nature documentaries as I could, which made me wonder why none of the scientists on these documentaries looked like me.
This photo was taken on a field trip I took with Dr. Kristin Winchell in the Dominican Republic at the Jardín Botánico Nacional Dr. Rafael M. Moscoso.
Functional Ecologists 