World Seabird Conference 2015: Cape Town
Gemma Clucas
Univeristy of Southampton and University of Oxford
A Challenger Society Travel Award allowed me to attend the World Seabird Conference in Cape Town in October 2015. The conference is only held every five years, and so it brings together seabird ecologists from all over the world. This year, nearly 600 delegates from 42 countries attended the four-day conference, and a third of the delegates were students, which gave it a very open and accessible atmosphere. The conference organisers had also done a great job of mixing the right amount of presentations and poster sessions with a good number of fun social events, such as the speedy seabird social, which was like speed dating but for networking scientists. This meant that there were many great opportunities for meeting people, which will hopefully lead to future collaborations.
On the second-to-last day of the conference I presented some of my PhD research in a short presentation entitled, “Population Structure and Dispersal in Emperor Penguins.” This included the results of a population genomic study I have been conducting on Emperor penguins from eight colonies around Antarctica.
After my talk I had some interesting discussions with population modelers who are trying to predict how climate change will affect emperor penguins using global climate change projections. If I can quantify exactly how much migration occurs in Emperor penguins using genomic techniques, then this could feed directly into population models to increase the accuracy of their predictions, which would be a really exciting outcome.
Overall the conference was a really worthwhile and interesting event for me to attend and I would like to thank the Challenger Society for their support.
Profile
I am a 3rd year PhD student working on the population genetics of penguins around Antarctica. I am based partly at the University of Southampton and partly at the University of Oxford, working with Dr. Tom Hart and Dr. Gareth Dyke. My work focuses on identifying the processes that cause populations to become genetically differentiated from one another, and how this leads to speciation.
Twitter Post
Thanks @challengersoc for helping me get to #WSC2. Great fun and brilliant presenting my research to such a relevant audience.
Latest News
Socio-oceanography Workshop sets sights on key climate and ocean challenges
The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is calling on scientists and researchers to participate in its fourth annual Socio-Oceanography Workshop, hosted in collaboration with the Marine Social Science Network.
This international event, set to take place at NOC’s Southampton site 26-28 February 2025, will gather experts across natural and social sciences to tackle the pressing issues linking people and the changing ocean.
This year’s workshop will focus on four key themes, including the impact of climate change-driven shifts in marine species distribution and how these changes will affect the way the UK marine environment is perceived, valued, and managed.
Other topics include integrating digital humans into environmental digital twins, addressing biases in research related to marine carbon dioxide removal, and exploring how local communities can engage in participatory environmental monitoring.
FMRI Lead Scientist Opportunity
The FMRI programme is now recruiting for a new Lead Scientist. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in helping to shape the UK’s future marine research capability.
The team are looking for someone who can connect with scientists and engineers to help define the best strategies for exploiting new technologies. Someone who is excited about new opportunities for marine research and can think across the big challenges. Someone who can peer over the horizon and imagine a different way of doing things.
FMRI is seeking to fund at least 50% of the Lead Scientist’s time to work as a key member of the programme leadership team.
I would be grateful if you could forward the attached flyer to your networks and encourage potential candidates to apply for this important role.
For an informal discussion, please contact the team via: info@fmri.ac.uk
For more information or to apply, please visit: www.fmri.ac.uk/recruit/lead-scientist
Applications close: 28th November, 2024
Applications for AGU Vice Chair for 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting
The AGU is currently inviting applications for a Vice Chair to help lead the Organising Committee for the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting, to be hosted in Glasgow in 2026. Applications consist of a CV and expression of interest, to be received by 18 October 2024.
The biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is jointly convened by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) and The Oceanography Society (TOS). The OSM is overseen by a Program Committee responsible for the scientific content of the meeting as well as ancillary events, plenary speakers, and award ceremonies. The Program Committee is composed of a Chair and Vice Chair selected by each of the three participating societies. This advertisement is for the AGU Vice Chair position.
https://www.agu.org/plan-for-a-meeting/agumeetings#vicechairosm26