A good fellowship application takes time to craft, so if you are thinking of coming to the UK and are interested in climate change effects on insect reproduction - including different life stages, eggs, micropyles, imaging, microscopy, thermal limits, ecological physiology, plants and microclimates and more - now is the time to think about it! There are different schemes to consider, depending on eligibility criteria:
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Amazing news, my international exchange project to work with Sylvain Pincebourde (CNRS, France) was funded in May 2023! Sylvain and I have started working on linking microclimate (his expertise) and butterfly fertility (me). As a start, Sylvain visited Lincoln in June 2023 and we trialled two different thermal imaging cameras to measure temperature on wild and domesticated cabbages as well as eggs, caterpillars and pupae of the large white butterfly, Pieris brassicae. The wild black mustard, Brassica nigra, plants came from seeds that Nina Fatouros, Wageningen University, shared with me, while we grew kale (Brassica oleracea spp.) from organic seeds. The two thermal imaging cameras (FLIR E54 and FLIR T540) worked well, with the FLIR T540 comfortably outperforming the FLIR E54. No surprise there, as the price tag of the FLIR T540 is almost double that of the FLIR E54! The good news is that we can pick out the temperature differences across the leaves. This work was also done thanks to Teun's efforts - Teun is my summer Erasmus research intern for 2023. I look forward to developing this collaboration over the course of the next few years. I keep being annoyed at myself for not being 'as productive', as I could. Comparing myself to more productive colleagues. This is obviously wrong and doesn't make much sense when you reflect on it, but it does not stop me from doing it. There are many examples of blogs and microblogging from many colleagues in academia noting the same feeling.
I wanted to write about it - and I will be honest - I started this blog post back at the end of June and did not manage to hit the 'publish' button until at the end of September. This was not for lack of time, but lack of wanting to write about it. I think, however, it is important to talk about it. To normalise the fact that we all work at different paces, for different reasons, and there isn't one single 'measure' that reflects the work we produce. Somehow, in academia the work you produce defines you. This is not how it should be. You - we - are not the work we produce, we are human beings. But academia does not recognise that we can be different, work at different paces, choose to have priorities outside our profession: it only rewards those who can dedicate all their life to work. Of course this is not always the case, there are thankfully examples of colleagues who have championed diversity in the workplace, a healthy work-life balance, a culture of change. Those are the minority though. I am active in several committees at work as in learned societies, because I want to see those different perspectives championed. I don't want to work in a culture where only a 60-hour week will do. To me it matters that I can bring a different experience. I know that experiences shapes the way I see the world. At times it is hard though, taking time is not the easy way. |
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August 2023
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