Annual Report – Student Impact and Outputs

Third supervisor. Regular access to collections + public engagement.

No extra funding

/

Bogue Fellowship for Travel and Research in North America, £4,000 funding

The student visited the laboratories of Dr Dirk Sasche for 5 weeks in April 2016. The student was learning to extract and analyse biomarker isotope measurements from sediment samples. This links to my ongoing links to the ERC-funded STEEPclim project (see profile for details: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/staff/dirk-sachse/).

No charge was made for the five weeks laboratory usage and 80 isotopic analyses. This had an in kind value of c. £3400

CASE Partnership

£3,000

Funder only.

£5000 in support of field work costs.

Funder only.

£5700 in funding support for field work.

Funder only.

£5300 in funding support for field work.

o Data sharing. Have provided the project with wild dog occurrences and photographs of wild dogs from across Africa. No funding.

Data provision of wild dog sightings and photographs

Professor Tim Coulson has been training me in population modelling

1 weeks training so far with more to follow

My project is feeding into the TAI research group who are a part of the larger CGIAR led WLE program in the Volta river basin.

None

Data and knowledge exchange.

None

Data and knowledge exchange.

None

Knowledge, expertise, data, equipment exchange

In-kind support – Use of equipment.

Knowledge and expertise exchange, in-kind support

In-kind support – research assistants for 6 weeks during fieldwork

Knowledge, expertise exchange, in-kind support

In-kind support – Use of university facilities whilst doing fieldwork

Financial support – grant funding award

Funding support – “Monitoring monotremes” conservation grant (56,000 HKD over two months)

CASE Partner

£4000 over 4 years

Fellowship

CAD$5000 once off

Analysis of contemporary and historical observations, shared field research activities and logistics,

NERC-ESRC-DFID funded GroFutures project

provision of historical hydrological records and hydrogeological data, liaison with private sector, Dodoma Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority

in-kind support provided through both data provision and field logistical support

Data and exchange of knowledge

N/A

I was given access to the modern mammals collection in order to measure teeth from bovids and cervids

I was provided with a workspace in the collections and help locating and working with the specimens.

I was provided access to the zoology collections in order to measure teeth from bovids and cervids.

The collections manager extracted all the specimens I required for me before my arrival and provided me with a workspace in the collections.

I am being provided access to fossil teeth from the site of Le Portel-Ouest. My research is helping give an environmental context to a Neanderthal occupation site which complements CERP’s work on the site.

I am being provided a workspace and shown around the collections and given a background and context to CERP’s research at Le Portel-Ouest.

I am being provided access to fossil teeth from the sites of Abric Romani and Teixoneres caves. My research is helping give an environmental context to two Neanderthal occupation sites which complements IPHES’s work on the site.

I am being provided a workspace and shown around the collections and given a background and context to IPHES’s research at both of the fossil sites.

Project Partners

In Kind Support:
Support with planning and conducting fieldwork to take samples for this PhD.
Technical support for PhD student during subsampling in labs in Irkutsk at the Centre of Geochemistry.
Data sharing including radiocarbon dates results.

Quaternary Research Association (QRA) Research Award

2 radiocarbon dates (~£336 per date)

Co-application to the NERC Isotope geoscience facilities to support the PhD project.

Collaboration in year 2 of the PhD.

Knowledge and data sharing, use of equipment and personnel, supervisory input

PBA provides equipment, personnel (field hours), and expert knowledge for all field work conducted. Minor financial support (in terms of materials, and hours of staff) has been provided.

Knowledge and data sharing, licensing

Data sharing focussed around discussions

Knowledge and data sharing, licensing

Data sharing focussed around discussions

Knowledge and data sharing, equipment loan, personnel hours

Provisioning of equipment for field use, and personnel to assist with local expert knowledge and field work

Knowledge and data sharing

Data sharing focussed around discussions

Knowledge and data sharing, presentation of data and teaching

Discounted residency and provision of working space during field works

Funding

Financial assistance to help fund complementary Masters projects

Knowledge and data sharing, field work

Access to focussed training and data

Knowledge and data sharing, training

Access to focussed training and data

funding for ARCHER HPC computing time

1 year 1200kAU (~£600)

data & expertise sharing

sharing of output and starting conditions, ancillary files as well as technical support

CASE partnership

£1000 additional stipend + £750 travel allowance p.a.

CASE partnership

None provided to date.

Licensing and knowledge

Licensing and knowledge sharing related to electrofishing in London rivers.

Sharing of knowledge and equipment

Provider of equipment and analysis using cotton strip assays to measure decomposition in London rivers.

CASE partnership

Details being finalised

Impact evaluation of SMART tool

n/a

Financial support for project activities

n/a/ (support will come through next year)

Implementing org.

n/a (in-kind support will be provided next year)

Funding support for field work elements.

£5000 towards field work costs.

Funding support for field work elements.

£6000 towards field work costs.

Funding support for field work elements.

£5000 towards field work costs.

A local partner on the ground for fieldwork.

tbc – likely in kind support and logistical.

Professional development, financial support, expertise

The Angling Trust has provided ongoing advice and monetary support for the PhD project (amounting to £1000 per annum, and an allocated additional fund for travel costs). I have gained greater experience working amongst different environmental stakeholders and NGOs, having the opportunity to attend national and international meetings discussing invasive alien species and freshwater issues. This has substantially helped to increase my understanding of the new EU Regulation and the current policy work being undertaken within the UK to meet its regulation obligations. Through this partnership I have had the opportunity to engage with the wider public, being actively involved in Defra’s invasive awareness-raising week ‘Invasive Week’, writing a blog that was promoted on social media and on the Wildlife and Countryside Link website.

Advice, data and equipment

Cambridge University Biology Department have given permission for some experiments to be undertaken in their biosecure laboratory as part of the PhD project this summer. The findings of the work will form one chapter of the PhD, investigating the desiccation tolerance of invasive aquatic species on angling equipment. David Aldridge, an expert in invasive species, has also provided further guidance on the design of the project.

Advice/ expertise and data

Attended a meeting in Queen Mary University, Belfast with Jaimie and Joe in March 2017 to discuss collaborating on a project focusing on the potential of angling to act as a pathway for IAS movement between Great Britain and Ireland. They provided knowledge on IAS present within Ireland, contacts to obtain invasive records, and interest in collaborating on a project once the results are analysed. Data has so far been obtained from National Museum Northern Ireland and I am awaiting data from the National Biodiversity Data Centre.

Financial

Provided financial support for me to attend the 3rd Working Group on Invasive Alien Species in Brussels, Belgium on the 8th of June 2017. This provided a great opportunity to meet the EU Commission and NGOs from across Europe, and be involved in writing and discussing guidance on implementing the Regulation on IAS.

Bogue Fellowship 2016

4,000 GBP for three-months-trip to the US East Coast for museum research and specimen study

CASE partner

£4000 over 4 years

3 months internship on the Madingley Model and functional diversity with Dr Mike Harfoot

Full Stipend (3 months)+£1,000 paid to WCMC

A collaborative research project with Dr Matthew Holden to form part of my PhD

AUS3900 (travel and accommodation)

Work on PhD

My 3rd supervisor, Dr Drew Purves, is based at Google DeepMind

Targeting Agricultural Innovation and Ecosystem Service Management in the Northern Volta basin

None

Specialist collaboration regarding application of novel statistical techniques from Dr Roger Benson (Earth Sciences)

NA

Collaboration with turtle taxonomic specialist Dr Patricia Holroyd (University of California Museum of Paleontology) to help analysis of fossil turtle diveristy data

NA

Collaboration for support of 100 samples for carbon inclusion isotopes on purified diatom material. Analyses will be undertaken at NIGL, Keyworth and training will be provided for the PhD student.

£11620 received in kind from NERC (grant award IP-1678-1116).

50 Samples to be analysed at NIGL, Keyworth for oxygen isotopes on purified diatom silica. Training provided for the PhD student.

To be confirmed.

Funding for 2 radiocarbon dates processed at Queens University Belfast.

2 radiocarbon dates (worth ~£500).

Collaborating with individuals from the Institute of Geochemistry and Institute of the Earths Crust, Irkutsk (RAS) for samples and data from the study site. Additionally have provided assistance with fieldwork.

Academy staff time for sample collection and data analyses for shared data.

Chris received a Heredity Fieldwork Grant from the genetics society. This was used to fund his recent field season in May/June 2017

Grant = £1500

Julia Day and Chris Doble received funding to undertake the sequencing and analysis of environmental DNA samples.

2 months will be spent at the facility in late 2017. This will include sequencing and analysis training provided to Chris Doble.

CASE Partner

£1700 pa

Members of the PUC university of Chile collaborate with us on the study of tectonic-magmatic processes in the Andes

multidisciplinary research and data sharing Chile-UK

I met with Rob Deaville from the CSIP to discuss possible collaboration routes

Support has been via data sharing and collaboration

I have met with Paul Kiernan of the IWDG and they are keen for me to have access to their cetacean stranding data – this will support my own dataset

Support has been via data sharing and collaboration

PBA Applied Ecology
Private
Knowledge and data sharing, use of equipment and personnel, supervisory input PBA provides equipment, personnel (field hours), and expert knowledge for all field work conducted. Minor financial support (in terms of materials, and hours of staff) has been provided.

PBA provides equipment, personnel (field hours), and expert knowledge for all field work conducted. Moderate financial support (in terms of materials, and hours of staff) has been provided.

Knowledge and data sharing, licensing

Data sharing focussed around discussions

Knowledge and data sharing, licensing

Data sharing focussed around discussions, access to records. Loan of equipment and training received for use of internal computer systems.

Knowledge and data sharing, equipment loan, personnel hours

Provisioning of equipment for field use, and personnel to assist with local expert knowledge and field work

Knowledge and data sharing, licensing

Data sharing focussed around discussions

Knowledge and data sharing, presentation of data and teaching

Discounted residency and provision of working space during field works

Funding

Financial assistance to help fund complementary Masters projects

Knowledge and data sharing, field work

Access to focussed training and data

Knowledge and data sharing, training

Access to focussed training and data

3 month NERC funded internship in industry. Extensive training and support in project ecologist role for company.

£1000 NERC stipend associated with internship.

Providing access to the comparative anatomy and zoological collections

In-kind support including provision of workspace including desk, ladders and steps

Providing access to the natural science collection

In-kind support including workspace and two volunteers from the museum to assist for 1 day, museum curator’s time for 5 days

Providing access to the zoological collections

In-kind support including provision of workspace including security pass and keycard access, desk, internet access, ladders and steps, museum curator’s time for 5 days, option to have professional photographs and x-rays taken of specimens

Providing access to the Mammal collection

In-kind support including provision of security pass and keycard access , private workspace including desk, internet access, ladders and steps

Access to fossil teeth from the sites of Abric Romani and Teixoneres caves. My research is helping give an environmental context to two Neanderthal occupation sites which complements IPHES’s work on the site

Provided with workspace and shown around the collections and given a background and context to IPHES’s research at both of the fossil sites

Access to fossil teeth from the site of Le Portel-Ouest. My research is helping give an environmental context to a Neanderthal occupation site which complements CERP’s work on the site.

Provided with a workspace and shown around the collections and given a background and context to CERP’s research at Le Portel-Ouest.

Access to fossil teeth from Romito and Serratura Caves. My research is helping give an environmental context to an archaeological site which complements other work on the site.

Provided with workspace, internet access, given context of the sites and discussion of ongoing research.

I am using data collected by the BCT’s National Bat Monitoring Programme

I have a supervisor from the BCT.

Provided grant to complete one of my PhD chapters.

£13,000 towards research consumables.

Provided grant to support PhD

£15,000 towards research consumables

Providing patient cells to conduct research

Not valued at specific amount but are providing cells from 6 patients.

Providing access to Illumina EPIC 850k methylation array

Service paid for but small discount given.

They are our in country collaborators. They assist with fieldwork and we share knowledge and equipment.

The co-operation is part of a larger project ‘GroFutures’, the financial information of which I am not privy to.

UCL and BGS are part of a larger project, ”GroFutures’. Staff, knowledge, equipment etc. are all shared,

The co-operation is part of a larger project ‘GroFutures’, the financial information of which I am not privy to.

CASE partner

£1000 stipend + £750 travel/ annum

Joining onto an ongoing experiment in order to get guts from a year long translocation study

No fees paid towards experiment because it was already set up. Un kind support was an exchange of knowledge and stickleback intestine in exchange for assisting in dissections

Knowledge exchange and expertise in the field

N/A

Knowledge exchange and expertise in the field

N/A

Assistance with fieldwork and expedited permits

DPNG staff will be providing assistance in the field with mosquito trapping over a two year period. In-kind support comes in the form of accommodation, inter-island travel and use of vehicles when required.

Assistance with laboratory work

ABG will provide laboratory space, free of charge, for the duration of the project.

Assistance with mosquito feeding trials

The Wadsworth Center for Public Health will provide the facilities and expertise to house mosquito colonies from Galapagos, and wild-caught bobolinks, for mosquito vector competency trials.

Research and Field Support

Equipment, Research Assistants, and Vehicle access

Research and Field Support

Equipment and Food

Overseas studies and data collection collaboration in four year research project funded for UCL and PUC

FONDECYT Research grant

Worked within the Earthquake research institute for two months with a visiting supervisor and partook in some field work with a post-doc within the department for the University of Kyoto

None

Awarded scholarship for Canadian students conducting research in the UK

£5000 fund support to be provided in September

Data/model sharing

Access to data storage

Provided PhD supervision and funds for fieldwork

AUD $10,000

Provided funding for fieldwork

AUD$8000

Provided equipment for fieldwork

Donated tree climbing equipment for field work worth AUD$2000

CASE partnership

£3,000 in funding support for sample processing

In-kind support for overseeing ornithological research programme in Cusuco National Park

In-kind field costs provided for fieldwork in Honduras annually, in exchange for overseeing ornithological research programme in Cusuco National Park (a role which I have held for 5 years)

Research, local contact for fieldwork

Provides advisory and logistic support, as well as funding for a research assistant (700 euro)

Research placement

Provides advisory support and funding for organisation of workshops (unsure of exact amount but around 1000 euro)

PhD project supported and funded by the European Union Research Program C-FOOT-CTRL (‘Developing online tools to monitor, control and mitigate greenhouse gases emissions in wastewater treatment plants’

C-FOOT-CTRL, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014; part of the European Union Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020; Marie Skłodowska-Curie: grant agreement No 645769); http://cfootcontrol.gr/

Informal

Exchange of knowledge

Science Uncovered and Museum Lates at the NHM, design of stall about PhD research

Poster on research output so far, presented at the Palaeontological Association annual meeting, December 2015.

Poster on research output so far, presented at the Progressive Palaeontology annual meeting, May 2016.

Gave a short talk on my research so far at the first London Vertebrate Researcher’s meetup, May 2016.

Have participated in a number of public outreach events at the Natural History Museum, including Science Uncovered 2015 and some of the museum Lates events.

As part of my project I am improving the data stored in the Paleobiology Database, a free public online resource for palaeontological data. In particular I am updating and correcting all data associated with my study group, the Lepidosauria.

British Ecological Society Conference – poster presentation based on 1st chapter

Poster presentation based on 1st chapter

Poster presentation based on 1st chapter

Talking to the public at London Zoo about my research and the long term project I am part of

Tan the @Biotweeps twitter account – an account with over 600 followers that hosts a different biologist each week

10 minute lunchtime talk to staff and students based at ZSL

Journal article. Title: Application of the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) to a global assessment of alien bird impacts

Do changes in climate and land use explain long term
population trends of European vertebrates?
– Poster at BES Annual Conference 2015

Exploring the effect of recent environmental change on observed vertebrate population trends – Talk at Institute of Zoology Student Conference

Took part in the Sunset Safaris at ZSL – helped to man a science station which involved talking to the public about my work and other work carried out at the Institute of Zoology

Wrote a short map-story/blog about the peat land fires in Indonesia in October 2015
http://www.burdgis.com/blog/map/borneo-is-burning/

Extensive data set of all reservoirs in the Volta Basin. Currently used my multiple members of the TAI group

Presented a poster at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2016 conference. The conference was held in April 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The presentation was entitled: ‘Forecasting volcanic eruptions: the narrow margin between eruption and intrusion’.

Presented a joint poster at the Sedgwick Club (University of Cambridge) conference. The conference was held in March 2016 in Cambridge, UK. The presentation was entitled: ‘Evolutionary dynamics of a restless caldera: Campi Flegrei, Southern Italy’.

Oral presentation at a UCL Department of Earth Sciences PGR Seminar. The seminar was held in July 2016 in London, UK. The presentation was entitled: ‘Forecasting unrest and eruption at large volcanic calderas’.

Oral presentation to the London NERC DTP Cohort 2, as part of their training programme. The presentation was part of a training session on developing and using models within a PhD project. The presentation was held in January 2016 in London, UK. The presentation was entitled: ‘Forecasting unrest and eruption at large volcanic calderas’.

Work from my PhD was published in the UCL/ Birkbeck Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences (IEPS) Newsletter (No. 5; December 2015). The work was jointly undertaken between Christopher Kilburn, Richard Wall and myself – analysing and interpreting changes in seismic activity beneath Cotopaxi volcano (Ecuador), during a period of volcano unrest.

“Battitude: Human Fruit Bat conflict in the West Indian Ocean”. 7th Annual Bristol Zoological Society Symposium, ‘Saving wildlife together: Conflict, co-existence & conservation’ – http://goo.gl/1EFuYK

“People, parks and Attenborough’s echidna: The Political Ecology of the Cyclops Mountains, Papua”. Institute of Zoology, ZSL Student Conference

“Monitoring Monotremes:
Establishing a conservation evidence base for long-beaked echidnas in Papua” OPCFHK Final Report – http://goo.gl/TQlPYX

“In search of the elusive echidna” ZSL EDGE Blog – http://goo.gl/8HbIiG

ZSL Sunset Safaris 2015 – “Talk to a scientist”

New website created in collaboration with students from other NERC funding schemes (NERC DTP Stirling University and NERC CASE Oxford University) – http://goo.gl/zxRjFd

Gave talk presentation at the British Ecological Society annual conference in Edinburgh in Dec 2015

Gave poster presentation at ZSL Biodiversity and Remote Sensing 1 day symposium, 29 April 2016

Volunteering for ‘Water Explorer Event’ – impacts of climate warming on aquatic organisms event for children

Poster Presentation at the Quaternary Research Association Annual Discussion Meeting in January 2016.

Poster Presentation at the Quaternary Research Association Postgraduate Symposium in September 2015.

Ran own activity at the Quaternary Research Association Outreach Day in January 2016.

Led activity based around my research for members of the public and schools.

2 page submission covering research conducted by myself and masters students from UCL

I helped coordinate a short piece of filming, aimed at addressing the impact of the invasive signal crayfish in our UK rivers. The footage was used in a Britains Biggest adventures (produced by Nutopia), following Bear Grylls across the UK, and contributed to raising awareness within the general public of issues surrounding invasive species and biosecurity.

A short report for local interest groups and other invested stakeholders, providing preliminary analysis of my summer field work. Many landowners expressed a direct interest in receiving data and being kept informed of the findings of the project

A colleague and I prepared a short repot for the Environment Agency, detailing findings from our research with recommendations for best practice and direct input into current legislative reviews.

Day including presentation and specimen displays to A level students on topics surrounding biodiversity and invasive species

BES Public Engagement at Wychwood Festival

Climate Change Adaptation: A Critical Approach
Mavrogenis, S., Theodorou, P. & Walshe, R. A. Apr 2017 The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation. Routledge

Poster presentation at the Freshwater Invasive Networking Strategy (FINS) conference in Zagreb, Croatia 11th-14th July 2016. Contributed to paper coming out of this conference in revision for Special Issue of the Management of Biological Invasions

Poster presentation at the DTP Conference, Kings College London, 1-2nd September 2016

Report for the Angling Trust annual review ‘Floods, train strikes and miming – all in a day’s work in the fight to stop the spread of invasives’ in The Angler – Annual Review of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal, October 2016 (currently hard copy only).

Blog for Wildlife and Countryside Link on my PhD project

Oral presentation of research at the London Freshwater Group, Linnean Society, 17th March 2017.

I wrote a template Angling Pathway Action Plan section of the ‘Management of pathways of introduction and spread of IAS of Union Concern’. This is being drafted as guidance for EU Member States to implement the EU Regulation on Invasive Alien Species (1143/2014). I was also invited to the group to give a presentation summarizing the entire report in Brussels.

Faulkner SC, Stevenson MD, Verity R, Mustari AH, Semple S, Tosh DG, Le Comber SC. 2014. Using geographic
profiling to locate elusive nocturnal animals: A case study with spectral tarsiers. Journal of Zoology 295, 261-268.

Faulkner SC, Verity R, Roberts D, Roy SS, Robertson PA, Stevenson MD & Le Comber SC (2016). Using geographic profiling to compare the value of sightings vs trap data in a biological invasion. Diversity and Distributions: a journal of conservation biogeography.

A spatial approach to combatting wildlife crime (in second review). S.C. Faulkner, M.C.A. Stevens, S.S. Romañach, P.A. Lindsey & S.C. Le Comber. Conservation Biology.

British Applied Mathematics Colloquium 2017. ‘Geographic profiling in biology’.

Geographic profiling – murder, maths, malaria and mammals (in review). MCA Stevens& SC Faulkner. Chalkdust.

Talk about PhD research. Winner of public vote for best talk.

Several sessions performing at Science Showoff about being a scientist

Stall at Science Uncovered at the NHM September 2015 about crocodiles & my PhD research

Winner of the UCL MAPS Faculty round of 3 Minute Thesis Presentations in 2015, UCL finalist.

Gave a 15 minutes presentation

A decision-making tool to support sustainable harvesting of duiker Cephalophus species

In preparation

14-17 Dec 2015, Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting (Cardiff, UK).
Poster, “Lepidosaurian diversity through time: an exploratory look at the data”. [Published abstract]

19-22 May 2016, Progressive Palaeontology (Oxford, UK). Poster, “Lepidosaurian diversity through time: an exploratory look at the data”.

26-29 Oct 2016, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting (Salt Lake City, UT, USA).
Poster, “Global diversity patterns of Lepidosauria from the Triassic-Oligocene: what can they tell us about the long-term evolutionary history of the clade?”. [Published abstract]

14-17 Dec 2016, Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting (Lyon, France). Poster, “Global diversity patterns of Lepidosauria from the Triassic-Oligocene: what can they tell us about the long-term evolutionary history of the clade?”. [Published abstract]

I added to the Paleobiology Database from approx. May 2015 until Oct 2016 in bulk, and then have continued to edit since that date. In total I have added 1000+ new occurrences (including 335 new taxa), and made more than 500 changes to previously published data.

European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly April 2017. Conference presentation ‘Ecosystem resilience to abrupt late Quaternary climate change in continental southern Siberia’ in session CL1.15 ‘Quaternary climate archives and proxy uncertainity’ sub-session 1 ‘Palaeoclimate time-series’ Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 19, EGU2017-8684, 2017 EGU General Assembly 2017.

Conference presentation ‘Ecosystem resilience to abrupt climatic and environmental change in southern Siberia during the Late Quaternary’ at the DTP conference ‘Perspectives on Environmental Change’ September 2016.

Quaternary Research Association (QRA) – Quaternary Newsletter (No. 141 – February 2017) ‘Reconstructing southern Siberian environments: Responses to abrupt late Quaternary Climate Forcing’ Pages 33-36.

Poster presented at Quaternary Research Association (QRA) Annual Discussion Meeting (ADM) Jan 2016. RA ADM 2016 at Royal Holloway University of London. Title ‘Ecosystem Resilience to Abrupt Late Quaternary Climatic and Environmental change in Southern Siberia’.

Poster presented at Quaternary Research Association (QRA) Postgraduate Symposium September 2015 (Cambridge). Title ‘Ecosystem resilience to abrupt climatic and environmental change in southern Siberia since the Last Glacial Maximum’.

‘Ecosystem resilience to abrupt late Quaternary climate change in continental southern Siberia’ Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 19, EGU2017-8684, 2017 EGU General Assembly 2017.

Britton. A. W, Day. J. J, Doble. C. J, Ngatunga. B. P, Kemp. K. M, Carbon. C and Murrell. D. J. Biological Conservation 212, 120-129

I was invited to partake in the Grant Museum’s ‘Whale Weekender’ which took place on the 8th and 9th of July 2017. I attended as the whale biologist for the event and worked with almost 800 members of the public over the weekend.

It was a great opportunity to tell people about my research, network, and make new connections.

I was invited to speak at the the NHM’s whales ‘Lates’ event as one of their whale biologists on Friday 28th July 2017.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/events/lates.html

I spoke with members of the public for over 4 hours about my research, funding and the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme (CSIP), whose data I am also using. I made some good connections.

Helping with the material for the NHM’s ‘Dinosnores’ whale event on Friday 21st July.

NHM whale evolution film – I have been in charge of the Grant Museum’s social media accounts on a couple of occasions. This has been a really great opportunity to get people interested in my research subject.

I was invited to record a short film with the NHM about whale evolution and fossil whales. The film will go on the museum’s social media accounts and is a great way of networking, and familiarising people with my research.

2 page submission covering research conducted by myself and masters students from UCL, Freshwater Biological Association Summer Newsletter (No. 66, Summer/Autumn 2015).

I helped coordinate a short piece of filming, aimed at addressing the impact of the invasive signal crayfish in our UK rivers. The footage was used in a Britains Biggest adventures (produced by Nutopia), following Bear Grylls across the UK, and contributed to raising awareness within the general public of issues surrounding invasive species and biosecurity.

A short report for local interest groups and other invested stakeholders, providing preliminary analysis of my summer field work. Many landowners expressed a direct interest in receiving data and being kept informed of the findings of the project

A colleague and I prepared a short report for the Environment Agency, detailing findings from our research with recommendations for best practice and direct input into current legislative reviews.

Presentation and specimen displays to A level students on topics surrounding biodiversity and invasive species

Field work conducted by myself and a colleague is to be included as a case study into a book, Freshwater Ecology & Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques, Oxford University Press, ed. Bill Sutherland

Poster presentation at the Quaternary Research Association Postgraduate Symposium 2016, Nottingham, UK

Poster presentation at the LGBT STEMinar 2017, Sheffield, UK

Poster presentation at the PAGES 5th Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain

Presentation at European Geophysical Union annual meeting in April 2017 of progress developing a new method for retrieving snow depth on sea ice.

Presentation at American Geophysical Union annual meeting in December 2016 of progress developing a new method for retrieving snow depth on sea ice.

Participation in CryoVex field campaign in Cambridge Bay, Canada. Student aided in data collection and will work with the data to validate snow depth retrievals

Poster presented at EGU 2016 in Vienna.

Talk given at TSG workshop held in London in 2016

Poster presented at SGI conference in Naples, Italy in 2016.

Poster presented at FAULT2SHA workshop in Barcelonnette, France in 2016

43rd IAH Congress – Le Corum, Montpellier, France, September 2016
Presentation – ‘Episodic groundwater recharge in a semi-arid environment- assessing the impact of the 2015/16 El Nino in Central Tanzania’

43rd IAH Congress – Le Corum, Montpellier, France, September 2016
Poster – ‘Episodic groundwater recharge in a semi-arid environment- assessing the impact of the 2015/16 El Nino in Central Tanzania’

Perspectives on Environmental Change – King’s College, London, England, September 2016
Presentation – ‘El Niño Dependent Groundwater Recharge in East Africa: A 2015/16 ‘Godzilla’ El Niño case study’

Banking the Rain – Morogoro, Tanzania. Presentation.
Banking the Rain: enhancing the resilience of water supplies in dryland Africa

High-resolution Monitoring in the Makutapora Basin:
assessing recharge processes under the 2015-2016 El Niño Event. Report for various departments of the Tanzanian Governement

Sustainability of groundwater pumping in the Makutapora Wellfield. A report for various departments of the Tanzanian Government.

We have a data set of tens of thousands of groundwater, surface water and rainfall measurement from our field site in Tanzania.

We have a dataset of a hundreds of rainfall, groundwater and surfacewater samples which have been isotopically analysed.

BBC news interview on my project

Front page and article on my project in Freshwater Biological Association newsletter

Poster presentation winner at university PG conference

Mancini, M.C.; Kovacs, K.; Wailes, E.; Popp, J. Addressing the Externalities from Genetically Modified Pollen Drift on a Heterogeneous Landscape. Land 2016, 5, 33.

36 stations worth of magnetotelluric data collected in Chile between October 2016 to March 2017

Talk at PAGES 2017

Media release on results of first fieldwork season

Media release on results of first fieldwork season

Presented at the 2017 Progressive Palaeontology conference. Title: The completeness of the early hominin fossil record

Presented at the 2016 European Society for the Study of Human Evolution 6th annual meeting. Title: The completeness of the early hominin fossil record

Gave a presentation at the 2017 Symposium for European Freshwater Sciences Conference (Olomouc, Czech Republic) entitled “Examining nitrogen biogeochemistry across the sediment-water interface in restored and unrestored urban London rivers”

Presented a poster at the 2017 River Restoration Centre Conference (Brighton) entitled “Examining Nitrogen dynamics in restored & unrestored urban rivers”

Gave a presentation at the NERC DTP Conference 2016 Perspectives on Environmental Change (King’s College, London), entitled “Examining ecosystem function across urban London rivers to determine the success of restoration”

Talk entitled – Avian species turnover on tropical mountains; implications of behavioural dominance and ecotones

Talk entitled – Investigating classic hypotheses of elevational turnover in tropical montane songbirds

Poster – Brunel Postgraduate Conference July 2017

Poster – IRDR Conference June 2017

Oral Presentation – Frontiers in Natural Environment Research August 2017

In non academic journal called Carnivore Damage Prevention News, 1 of them is still under review

Presentation at a conference titled Problematic Wildlife

Massara, T.M., Komesli, O.T., Sozudogru, O., Komesli, S., Katsou, E., 2017. A Mini Review of the Techno-environmental Sustainability of Biological Processes for the Treatment of High Organic Content Industrial Wastewater Streams. Waste Biomass Valori. 8, 1665-1678.

Massara, T.M., Malamis, S., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., Noutsopoulos, C., Katsou, E., 2017. A review on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions during biological nutrient removal from municipal wastewater and sludge reject water. Sci. Total Environ. 596-597, 106-123.

Massara, T.M., Katsou, E., Guisasola, A., Rodriguez-Caballero, A., Pijuan, M., Baeza, J.A., 2017. Modelling of N2O emissions in a full-scale activated sludge sequencing batch reactor. In: Mannina, G. Ed. Frontiers in Wastewater Treatment and Modelling. Palermo, Italy: Springer, pp. 98-104.

Baeza, J.A., Gabriel, D., Guisasola, A., Lafuente, J., Katsou, E., Massara, T.M., Noutsopoulos, C., Antoniou, K., Andreadakis, A., Mamais, D., Koumaki, E., Gioldasi, M., Prado, O., Colón, J., Rosso, D., Krieg, G., Malamis, S. ‘On-line monitoring, control and mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions in WWTPs’, 7th International Conference on Biotechniques for Air Pollution Control and Bioenergy (Biotechniques-2017), La Coruña, Spain, 19th-21th July 2017.

Bayar, S., Massara, T.M., Boncukcuoglu, R., Komesli, O.T., Katsou, E. ‘Advanced Treatment of Pistachio Processing Industry Wastewater by Fenton Process’, 5th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management, Athens, Greece, 21st-24th June 2017.

Çalık, S., Özgenç, E., Yılmaz, A.E., Sozudogru, O., Massara, T.M., Katsou, E., Komesli, O.T. ‘Removal of Heavy Metals with Membrane Bioreactor Combined with Activated Carbon’, 5th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management, Athens, Greece, 21st-24th June 2017.

Yilmaz, A.E., Cengiz, I., Massara, T.M., Yilmaz, T.M., Komesli, O.T., Stanchev, P., Katsou, E. ‘The Effect of Initial pH and Retention Time on Boron Removal by Continuous Electrocoagulation Process’, 5th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management, Athens, Greece, 21st-24th June 2017.

Baeza, J.A., Guisasola, A., Gabriel, D., Lafuente, J., Katsou, E., Massara, T., Rodriguez-Caballero, A., Pijuan, M., Noutsopoulos, C., Antoniou, K., Andreadakis, A., Mamais, D., Koumaki, E., Gioldasi, M., Prado, O., Colon, J., Rosso, D., Krieg, D., Malamis, S. ‘On line monitoring, control and mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions in WWTPs’, 12th IWA Specialized Conference on Instrumentation, Control and Automation, Québec City, Québec, Canada, 11th-14th June 2017.

Poster of results from pilot study at the River Restoration Centre Conference 2017

Student was taught in seminar and lab based settings the process of charcoal accumulation in sediments, understanding what causes charcoal formation, macro-charcoal preparation methods, charcoal identification and analysing charcoal data. The lab sessions were 1-on-1 teaching.

Session detailing the types of statistics that could be useful for analysing the data specific to the students project. Discussed the types of data the student will have and how statistics will be useful for answering specific questions relating to the students PhD.

Presented a poster entitled: Does vegetation respond to centennial-scale climatic oscillations? Evidence from Tirinie, a Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT) site in the Scottish Highlands

in-depth interviewing – Doctoral Skills Development Programme

To become familiar with the six steps of thematic analysis as outlined in Braun & Clarke (2006)
Be able to relate this foundational method to other specific analytic methods such as Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Framework Analysis
To critique analytic methods and understand their merits and limitations
Gain practical analysis skills to support current research projects

I literally have an entire UCL doctoral training record in the research log that I am sure you could check, given that we all have to fill one in as UCL-based PhD students. I refuse to spend ages typing up a list which is already readily available.

Week long intensive training on how to use ArcGIS for environmental studies.

Training in use of R for a range of statistical analysis techniques.

Training in various ways of assessing risk, partly within the topic of making decisions in conservation.

Taught the basics of spatial analysis in R, tailored to ecologists. One day course

1 day course on the use of spatial analysis packages in R

1 week course on ODE modelling using R

1 week overview of different modelling approaches using R and Matlab

2 day training course on how to use QGIS for spatial analysis

6 week Open University course on how to use python to analyse data

A seven-day course on the concepts and R tools that can be used to
analyse spatial data in ecology. Location – Cumbrae, Scotland.

A two-day workshop at the Institute of Botany in Průhonice in the Czech Republic, to discuss the implementation of a new methodology to quantify and categorise the impacts of alien species.

A one-day course to examine the use of R to analyse spatial data in R. Location – University of Liverpool (London Campus).

Blog writing skills day run by DTP

Training to teach problem based learning to masters students

Attended conference in Montpellier

Training during the first 6 months of the DTP

Attended training course in using the Zoon R package – used for species distribution modelling

Multiple contacts made across the current project I am attached to as well as with many others.

Mattia was successful in gaining a scholarship (course fee and contribution to travel expenses) for this course.

The course guided students through the research process of agent-based modelling in the social sciences: formulating a research question, specifying a model, creating a simulation and interpreting the output.

The syllabus included:
• conceptualising agent-based models
• operationalising and calibrating from data
• experimenting and analysing
• interpreting models
• verifying and validating

The course included:

a. Hands-on sessions of model building in NetLogo, a widely used and powerful language for social science modelling. These sessions were designed to aid understanding of the structure of a model and learning to write programs.

b. Model development sessions. These sessions facilitated the development of Mattia’s PhD model.

The 3-day workshop was run by Prof. Agust Gudmundsson at RHUL in February 2016. The training (1) introduced the applicability of finite element modelling to earth system processes, and (2) provided introductory training on the functionality of COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element modelling program.

A half-day teacher training event run through UCL Arena One: Gateway. The workshop prepared participants for teaching responsibilities and introduced approaches to teaching and learning. The workshop was held in September 2015 in London, UK.

A half-day training event run through UCL. The workshop addressed research integrity in the sciences, and achieved through participation in ‘The Dilema Game’. The workshop was held in June 2016 in London, UK.

Presented a poster at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2016 conference. The conference was held in April 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The presentation was entitled: ‘Forecasting volcanic eruptions: the narrow margin between eruption and intrusion’.

Presented a joint poster at the Sedgwick Club (University of Cambridge) conference. The conference was held in March 2016 in Cambridge, UK. The presentation was entitled: ‘Evolutionary dynamics of a restless caldera: Campi Flegrei, Southern Italy’.

Language skills development in relation to fieldwork

The course gave a basic overview and introduction to conducting spatial analysis using R – http://goo.gl/NW3ON1

A doctoral training forum for PhD and postdoctoral students interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the development-environment debate from a multidisciplinary perspective.

UCL Arena One Gateway Workshop designed to prepare postgraduate students for teaching responsibilities and to introduce them to approaches to teaching and learning.

A free online course available on Future Learn. The course ran over 10 weeks and aimed to give an understanding of how injustice is a common feature of environmental problems.

An introduction to the latest research skills and techniques employed to investigate evidence in a variety of disciplines.

This course focused on improving trainees ability to write both an excellent thesis and high quality publications.

This course focused on techniques to gather ideas and produce a coherent piece of work from the vast literature available.

This session took one step back and aimed to show trainees how to judge what is worth their time and attention in the first place, how to plan a literature search in a scholarly way, leading them to attainable improvements in personal reading rates and retention by understanding cognitive processes and adopting good reading practices. 

An introduction to statistical methods using R for the social sciences.

A workshop that examined approaches to view networking as a positive activity and looked at how to do it more effectively, naturally and confidently.

This course aimed to introduce trainees to semi-structured interviewing for qualitative research. It provided a practical, workshop approach that prepared trainees interviews, as well as incorporating some formal slides to build knowledge of the interview process.

This course aimed to provide a condensed yet comprehensive introduction on how to obtain grant funding. Trainees learnt about possible avenues of funding and the process by which grants are awarded. The course then focused on how to write an effective proposal, prepare a presentation and respond to questions and reviewer’s comments. It also involved lots of examples as well as practical written and oral exercises.

N/A

Identification of European ants organised by IUSSI-SF. The workshop was held at Banyuls-
sur-mer, from the 15th to the 17th of June, and lasted 20h00 (collects and identification). It
consisted in collecting and identifying species of European ants using identification keys and
reference specimens, and was supervised by Prof. Xavier Espadaler, Mr. Claude Lebas, Prof.
Alain Lenoir and Dr. Thibaud Monnin.

NERC ATSC – 5 days, Aug 2015

NERC ATSC – 4 days, Aug 2015

1 day – Dec 2015

5 days – June 2015

A 6 week training cruise for PhD students from Germany to South Africa on plankton ecology.

I have attended several NERC short courses across the UK on statistics and data analysis.

Seminars and workshops addressing transferable skills based on the Vitae Researcher’s Development Framework covering: communication skills, creativity & innovation, ethics, networking, project planning & organisation, resource management, team-working, work-life balance and stress management.

5 sessions on statistics, 3 sessions on modelling covering programming, R, Big data and examples of climate, biological and environmental modelling.

A 3 day conference of Quaternary Science incorporating poster sessions with a significant number of postgraduates and networking opportunities as well as first looks at new papers and research to understand drivers and responders of environmental change in the Quaternary.

Poster Presentation (previous research) and networking.

Conference workshop on key techniques relating to the PhD and opportunity to contribute to conference Special Issue.

Broad non-academic skills

Key statistical training to aid project design

Key field technique

Key laboratory based analytical techniques

Key laboratory based analytical techniques

Key field technique

The first in 5 years, comprising of multiple keynote talks from leading scientists in the field of Astacology. I jointly presented on my recent field work, which was followed by a short discussion panel

A biannual conference hosted by the Field Studies Council. I presented preliminary findings from my summer field work, which is utilised in local teaching at the centre and spread via attendees to a range of local interest groups.

Key laboratory based analytical techniques, gained from a week of identification training and a field visit

Introduction to the field of socio-environmental synthesis. Lectures and activities on SES projects, analytical tools and proposal-writing. Preparation for participating in a SESYNC Graduate Pursuit project.

Non-academic skills

Key statistical training

Introduction to electrofishing theory and application. First aid training included.

Introduction to the skills required to plan lessons and teach in variable sized groups.

Key training on how to prepare for the upgrade

Key skills required to write a literature review

Short course covering the processes involved in applying for Associate Fellowship status.

A one-week course aimed to equip participants with the skills required to work in the consultancy sector using real-life dilemmas.

Conference attendance

This training course provided in depth training in using GCD software for the purpose of quantifying topographic change.

Training in canopy access and safety

Introductory course for molecular phylogenetic techniques, including data processing and output.

Introduction to modelling of populations; movements, demographics and population change.

Using R to handle big datasets and to make repeatable analyses

Making a difference in Invasion Biology: improving links between research, policy and practice, Marseille France, 14th-16th November 2016.

NERC 5 day course ‘Taxonomic skills and field techniques for freshwater ecology and quality’, Natural History Museum, London, 4th-8th July 2016

EDEN PhD Writing Day, Environment Domain Early-Careers Network, London 16th February 2017.

Three minute theses (3MT) presentation skills workshop, UCL, 9th March 2016

Editing your thesis effectively, UCL, 9th November 2016

Became an Associate Fellow for the Higher Education Academy in July 2016.

Attending quarterly meetings – Invasive Species Wildlife and Countryside Link Group http://www.wcl.org.uk/invasive.asp

Attended 13th Working Group of Experts for the Bern Convention on Invasive Alien Species in Madeira, 31st May- 3rd June 2017. http://www.coe.int/en/web/bern-convention/-/group-of-experts-on-invasive-alien-species-back-to-back-with-a-seminar-on-the-eradication-of-ias-in-small-european-islands-

England Media and Communications Group on Invasive Alien Species, Defra Nobel House, London 28th July 2016.

14th Stakeholder forum on Non-native Species, Cardiff, 13th June 2017

Demonstrating for physical geography modules in the Geography Department. This included GEOG 2002 Methods in Physical Geography, GEOG 2007 Ecological Patterns and Processes

Presented at MPhil training workshop, UCL 13th October 2016

Oral presentation to first year Geography undergraduates, UCL, 30th September 2016

Software and theory of occupancy modelling.

NERC-funded short course in GIS.

GitHub and command line coding.

Coding in Python

An incredibly useful discussion with the group of researchers studying the mathematics of crime.

NERC-funded course on mathematical modelling

Gave a 15 minute presentation

Post-graduate student research symposium in Biological sciences. Presented my PhD project to an audience of fellow PhD students and also supervisors. Good networking opportunity.

Talk: “Fossil record biases and the diversity of lepidosaurs through time”.

Demonstrated on the NHM/Imperial MSc Taxonomy and Biodiversity course in Feb 2017. One session teaching the group about fossil record biases and SQS (including showing them how to run the code), one session on analysing scientific papers.

Demonstrated on part of GEOL 3036A Biodiversity and Macroevolutionary Patterns in November 2016.

How to use BioGeoBEARS

An Introduction to R with RStudio

Arena ONE Gateway Workshop

Diversification in the fossil record

“The Innovating for Sustainable Development programme brings together PhD students with business, start-ups, NGOs and policy makers to find solutions to systemic environmental challenges, as outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
An exciting combination of residential courses, workshops, talks and a networking events will expose participants to experts in the sustainable development eld.”

Presentation and networking skills. Attendance at Division meeting for Climate: Past, Present & Future.

Publishing workshops and networking and presenting skills.

Introduction to statistical regression course

See title

See title

An introductory molecular phylogenetics course: molecular diagnostics for species identification and evolutionary analysis.

Training provided in the sequencing methods and analytical techniques for undertaking phylogenetic analysis. Practical sessions provided training in the use of a number of different software packages for analysing genetic data.

Further introduction to R

Training on the deployment and servicing of seismometers, including collection and preliminary processing of data

Hands-on course in first aid and pre-hospital care for rural and remote environments held in Andover

This was a week-long course in which we were introduced to various packages used in the R statistics environment. These included dplyr and tidyr. We were also taught about reproducibility of results and using GitHub for project collaboration.

I attended and helped with some conference planning at the 2017 BESMacro (British Ecological Society Macroecology) conference.

1 week field course in Albacete, Spain, which included:

– Understood ground solar induced fluorescence and spectroscopy measurements and their uncertainties.
– Developed field sampling strategies for Earth Observation calibration and validation.
– Planned airborne remote sensing campaign with supporting ground measurements.
– Developed an understanding of data assimilation and inverse methods in extracting key surface properties.

The course aims to provide a practical introduction to creative and critical thinking. It will cover creative thinking techniques, including lateral thinking, with worked example from the creative industries. We’ll learn how to apply these techniques to problem solving in the world of research and beyond. There will be discussion on critical thinking techniques and their application to problems in research and how we talk about it. The course will allow us to take a fresh look at our work, find the spark of innovation, and strengthen our research arguments.

Broad non-academic skills

Key statistical training to aid project design

Key field technique

Key field technique

Key laboratory based analytical techniques

Key field technique

The first in 5 years, comprising of multiple keynote talks from leading scientists in the field of Astacology. I jointly presented on my recent field work, which was followed by a short discussion panel

A biannual conference hosted by the Field Studies Council. I presented preliminary findings from my summer field work, which is utilised in local teaching at the centre and spread via attendees to a range of local interest groups.

Key laboratory based analytical techniques, gained from a week of identification training and a field visit

High level ecological field skills in crayfish identification and recording

Targeted health and safety training

Targeted health and safety training

A biennial group comprised of multiple key figures in UK freshwater science, where I delivered findings from the summers research

Lecture and workshops for Masters cohort, disseminating findings and leading practical’s on field techniques

Sessions for postgraduate teachers including planning teaching, how to teach in small groups, using technology in teaching, teaching to diverse students etc.

Poster presentation plus ECR training on making the most of conference attendance

Poster presentation plus multidisciplinary sessions with presentations from LGBT+ people working in a variety of STEM fields, discussion sessions etc.

Poster presentation

Co-organising the conference (c.50 delegates) and poster presentation (Sept 2017)

Day long event discussing the advances in chironomid-based environmental reconstructions, with a special focus on the academic contributions of Steven J Brooks.

Attendance at the conference organised in-part by CASE Partner

Seminar presentation on mater’s research to members of DTP Cohort 3 and friends.

Attendance at meeting in Goa, India and presentation of master’s research from material collected while sailing on IODP Expedition 355 in 2015. Field trip to Ladakh region and Himalayan suture zone.

Presentation: “Choosing the unknown path”

The course aimed to raise the quality of geological thinking using the medium of 3D seismic data. It was thought to
enable seismic interpreters to improve their seismic interpretation skills through a better understanding
of the nature and limitations of seismic data. It described modern techniques for eliciting structural and
stratigraphic information from those such and includes many examples of seismic data in a variety of
geologic settings.

I presented a talk at the first cohort 3 seminar series.

Week long training course in genomic bioinformatics.

Conference attendance and oral presentation

Presentations given about research to Brunel researchers.

Various conference and workshop related activities.

Various conference and workshop related activities.

Field plant ID skills and taxonomy

Week long training course

Poster. M. Mancini, J. Millington and R. Mace: Modelling complexity in Coupled Human and Natural Systems.

Presentation: Modelling complexity in Coupled Human and Natural Systems

Training for postgraduates planning to become teaching assistants

participation in the conference, networking

We learned about big business, innovation and conservation.

This is a world leading, week long course on Structured decision making.