St Andrews was one of the Scottish cities involved in celebrating European Researchers’ Night as part of Explorathon 2016. Explorathon consisted of a collection of engaging and exciting science-based events to spark interest among members of the public. As part of the evening of events, I participated in the XX Factor where six female researchers presented not only the topic of their research, but also the steps taken towards their career. The event aimed to inspire young boys and girls and to show them the diverse backgrounds that researchers can have.
You can read more about the involvement of the Healy lab in Explorathon 2016 on our website.
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.
The 3rd European Student Conference on Behaviour and Cognition was hosted at the University of St Andrews and was organised by myself and three other PhD students in the School of Biology. The conference is typically student run and led, and invites early-career researchers from all over Europe to present their research on topics concerning behaviour and cognition. The conference took place between March 17th and 18th, and attracted speakers from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Italy, as well as the UK.
As well as talks, we organised a round-table discussion on the topic of ‘Gender Equality and Diversity in Science’. We chose this topic due to some issues which were raised during the organising of our conference based on the fact that our two plenary speakers, Dr Andrew Young and Professor William McGrew, were both male. Though we were transparent about our selection process, I personally (and perhaps the other organisers feel the same, though I cannot speak for them) feel that we could have given more focus to achieving gender equality. When this issue was raised, we decided that the topic of gender equality and diversity was in much need of discussion, particularly among early-career researchers, and incorporated it into our conference.*
Another area that myself and the other organisers agreed on was to make the conference as ‘green’ as possible. With that in mind, we printed all programmes on recycled paper, served only vegetarian and vegan lunch options**, supplied ceramic cups and plates over paper options, gave attendees ethically produce jutebags, and supplied attendees with resuable water bottles to be used throughout the conference and beyond (myself and the other organisers still use ours daily).
The feedback that we received from the conference was overwhelmingly positive, and as organisers we were immensely proud of the turnout, as well as the quality of the talks. Our plenary speakers were fantastic, and the support that we received from our supervisors and peers whilst organsing the conference was gratefully received. A huge thank you to everyone involved!
After the conference I was invited to write a piece for the University of St Andrews’ postgraduate newsletter, which is available here (page 10).
A group photo on the final day, from left – Alexis Breen (organiser), Bill McGrew, Jessica van der Wal (organiser), myself, Andy Young, and Barbara Klump (organiser)
*The issues of gender equality raised, not only during the organsing of this conference but also during the preparation and execution of the discussion, led me to joining the University of St Andrews Biology Equality and Diversity Committee.
**We expected some negative feedback and potential complaints about this decision, but were pleasantly surprised that attendees actually supported it!
As a BBSRC funded PhD student, one of the requirements of my PhD is that I have to undertake a three month internship at some point between the end of my first and start of my fourth year.I chose to carry out my internship at Sense About Science, a charity dedicated to defending evidence even in the face of adversity. The charity, based in London, runs numerous campaigns which I wholeheartedly support, such as ‘Ask For Evidence’, which encourages members of the public to stop taking things at face value and instead hold, largely companies, responsible for the claims they make. Another noteworthy campaign is AllTrials, aiming to get all clinical trials registered and their results reported.
My role as an intern involved a lot of dabbling in many of the different campaigns, website maintenance, liaising with scientists, assisting with public events, and writing articles for the general public. As some perks of the job I was able to attend certain events such as the final day of Royal Society Pairing Scheme, the awarding of the John Maddox Prize, and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology event on Research Impact and Parliament.
served only vegetarian and vegan lunch options**, supplied ceramic cups and plates over paper options, gave attendees 
Georgina L Glaser 
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