Postgraduate Conference and Careers Event

Every year the University of St Andrews holds a conference for biology postgraduates to present their work. This year, I presented my work on foraging preferences and decision making in rufous hummingbirds, and my efforts were rewarded with the first prize for best talk!

I was also involved in organising a new feature for this conference – a careers event aimed at PhD students and postdocs. The event, which was initiated and coordinated by the Biology Equality and Diversity Committee, showed attendees the career paths available to them, including research policy, teaching, and science consulting. The feedback from the event has been extremely positive, and its success indicated that it could now be a regular feature at the conference.

Holding my presentation prize with pride

Fieldwork 2016 – Canada

Another field season completed! Members of the Healy lab returned to our fieldsite in Alberta to work on wild rufous hummingbirds with our collaborator Professor Andy Hurly. Both of my supervisors, Sue and Dave, joined us for the first leg of the season. The hummingbirds migrate from Mexico and arrive in late May, when our field season begins, and over the course of the next two months we work daily with territorial male hummingbirds. As with most years, we were joined by several undergraduate students who conducted their final year projects on the hummingbirds under our supervision. On top of our data, the fieldsite is a great spot for some nature snaps.

Black bear

Female rufous hummingbird

Female moose with a calf