Third year has been difficult. My dissertation project added a heavy work load to my regular assignments and independent reading. This left little time for personal endeavours, interests and leasure. Fortunately, the series of lectures I attended for the employability module were a healthy compromise of interesting, educational and fun, and writing the blog helped take my mind off more stressful forms of assessments. We are now nearing the end of the year and time has come to reflect back on what I gained from this module, both in terms of knowledge and in terms of transferrable skills.

 

In the first lecture, I learned about policy-making in science and the role large institutions have in communicating science and implementing it into policy. I found this first lecture helpful, as I would later learn more about the subject in many of my modules and I found I already had an adequate understanding of the matter. The political perspective on science, that I had rarely considered but found very instructive, was particularly interesting as it helped me understand the reasons behind the slow pace of climate change policy, which finds itself fighting against institutional biases in favor of fossil fuels and unsustainable consumption practices.

 

Not all lectures I attended were equally as interesting or relevant to me, but the range of topics addressed and the possibility of learning about entirely new topics on a weekly basis was very appealing. I learned about microbiology and animal behavior and it is this unexpected opening to a wider spectrum of sciences, which brings with it valuable opportunities to find new interests and directions. Looking back, although I sometimes struggled to find lectures engaging, I am satisfied with the module, as it turned out to extend further, conceptually, than just the content it was teaching. From a wider perspective, it was more about encouraging students to discover and to take difficult steps into their future, than about conveying specific content.

 

Third year is coming to a close and many of us are still figuring out where they want to head. For my part, I have decided to apply to masters degrees in marine biology and aquaculture, as those have been my interests since I started studying and I truly believe they have potential to be essential fields in the near future. Not only has this module allowed me to attend relevant lectures, I was also able to perfect my skills in composing CVs and cover letters, and improve my interview skills, which have proven to be invaluable in my applications. The practical applications of these skills are endless, whether or not I choose to remain in science in my career. I gained confidence in my ability to convey my skills and enthusiasm to obtain my desired positions.

 

Although I was initially unconvinced, I have now gained appreciation for Mr. Walkers lectures on business in science. Science is no good if no real-world applications are developped. All the knowledge accumulated on climate change and sustainability needs to be translated into actions if we are to progress towards a safe future, regardless of policies. This means taking what I know and building new businesses which provide an eco-friendly alternative to what is already in place, or joining an existing business and engaging my skills to enable a transition towards more environmentally respectful practices.

 

All in all, I enjoyed the Science and employability module. Writing a blog allowed me to keep track of what I learnt and to express it in my own words, rather than blankly absorbing and forgetting, as is too often the case. It helped me integrate the knowledge I gained and reflect about  the meaningfulness of it, extracting more than just the cover value. I may not continue writing on this blog, but I will continue putting my thoughts into written words, as I find it helps me understand better and builds an interesting record of my progression.

I will always carry with me the sense of childlike wonder as we sat in silence in our boat, bathed in the rush of air from a seemingly endless flock of cormorants, anhingas, herons and egrets, which had surprised us at a bend in the river. We got into trouble back at the base for not having recorded the number of individuals in the flock. That was indeed the purpose of the excursion that morning, but we hadn’t come back come totally empty-handed. I speak for myself here, but I think the the people I shared the experience with would agree: it had been at that moment that I realised that part of the process in understanding the natural world and advancing science and conservation is letting yourself slip into moments of total amazement and accepting the unexplainable beauty of nature.

That is where Operation Wallacea succeeded. There were many moments of joy and amazement in the 4 weeks I spent on the banks of the Rio Marañon, Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, deep in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. It was moments like the one I described above that convinced me I had made the right decisions, and despite not knowing exactly where I would end up, it would be right for me.

Through my involvement in many research projects centered around the river and its floodplain, such as fishing effort surveys, mammal prey and predator distribution and abundance, primate social structure and mist netting, I gained much in terms of practical and theoretical knowledge, and I had the satisfaction of having contributed to the publication of new research on the ecology of tropical environments. I also gained new insight on the running of large conservation projects.

Conversations I’ve had since have highlighted that such large organisations are often criticised for being prohibitive travel agencies rather than promoting volunteering and research. I cannot speak against the price of the expeditions, as they are indeed very high, but the volunteers cover the running costs of the organisation. What you take home from the expedition is not up to Operation Wallacea. Participating in research and observing these ecosystems and animals up close was and remains a dream of mine. Coming from a city in a Wester European country, exposure to nature is always welcome. What I learnt from my time on the water I kept as motivation for future endeavours. I’m still close friends with some of the people I met in the forest and I have built myself a network of useful contacts.

My studies also benefitted from my expedition in Peru. Knowing how it would work and that I would enjoy it, I signed up for an expedition to Mexico the following year (last summer) to collect data for my dissertation. I have yet to complete it, but I know it’ll be one of the many satisfactory reminders of my time in tropical forests.

My true passion is aquatic ecosystems. I keep tropical fish, so Peru seemed like an obvious choice. As it is now the end of my 3rd year of undergrad, I am looking to take the next step into a career or further studies. Drawing for my experience in Central and South America, I am strongly considering applying to work in Indonesia, in projects focusing of reef ecosystems and sustainable aquarium practices.

Last time Chris Walker came to speak to us, we were told he would be holding a “Dragon’s Den” event for us later in the year. What is Dragon’s Den, you ask? It’s a reality TV show in which hopeful entrepreneurs pitch a business idea to a panel of venture capitalists to obtain partnerships and investments.

Our version of Dragon’s Den, held in late March, was to focus on businesses based in biology, in an attempt to solidify our understanding of how the two disciplines could be brought together. I have written more on this subject in another post.

My team decided to work on a business encouraging the consumption of insect protein. Switching to insects has been a very popular idea in the battle for sustainability, as they are a higher quality source of protein than other animal sources, on top of being cheaper, easier to produce, and more sustainable. The major hurdle is their perception in Western culture. Many startups have attempted to change mentalities, with little success, leaving a challenging, but open, market.

We set about building a business model canvas, a fundraising video and a very short presentation to explain our business idea.

Although the “Dragon’s Den” was fun, it could also have been useful and instructive had we had more time to develop interesting business ideas and had it been better tailored to biology students.

It is surprising how widely distributed humans are. Even supposedly remote, untouched locations are, on closer inspection, influenced directly or indirectly by human presence. I first realised this during my time in the Peruvian Amazon, when we would occasionally encounter fishermen and travellers travelling downstream from deep within the forest, however distant from human civilisation I thought we were. This isn’t without consequence on wildlife. It is practically impossible to find un-hunted areas, and this has probably been the case for several millennia, as shown by a growing body of palaeoecological evidence from Africa, Asia and South America.

As such, I was not entirely surprised when Sarah Papworth, who led the seminar, told us that prey animals react in an analogous way to humans as they do to predators, in the distance they keep between themselves and the intruder and the reaction time. Of these prey animals, monkeys are a culturally important one to Amazonian peoples. They are hunted for food, kept as pets and in more recent time valued for science and tourism by individuals seeking to observe natural behaviour. Consequently it is important to be able to distinguish natural behaviour from behaviours induced by human presence, in order to better conserve species and avoid systematic bias during observational studies.

Sarah recorded woolly monkey behaviour and noted that although they reliably took action to decrease their visibility, they displayed a threat-sensitive response to hunters, gatherers and researchers. Some researchers have attributed this to the possibility that primates haven’t yet had the time to fully evolve a response to humans as predators, but given the time-scale of human presence in tropical forests, this is unlikely. It is more probable that given, the density of humans in forests and their variety of activities, it would be costly to respond to every sighting, so primates have evolved to recognise behaviours and evaluate threats.

An interesting point was made regarding threat evaluation. How would primates in natural parks distinguish hunters and poachers from park rangers carrying weapons? Are they able to learn and respond accordingly? How do you minimise stress generated from the conservation effort itself? These are just some of the questions raised during the seminar, which will certainly lead to more interesting research in this field.

Such research finds direct application in understanding how primates respond to predation risk, but also in designing better observational studies which account for modified behaviour.

I am not entirely sure yet what I want to do with my life. I know I want to work with aquatic organisms and the aquatic environment, I know I want to see the beauty of world and I know I want to contribute something positive to society. I haven’t thought yet of how I’ll make an impact, but in my field of interests, it’s either scientific research to improve our knowledge of the world and its functioning, or some kind of action, business related or NGO, to improve the way we interact with the environment, to the benefit of less fortunate people.

Chris Walker, professor of business at Bangor University, came in recently to talk to us about the steps in creating a business. It’s always seemed funny to me that people would study business. How do you come up with an idea and create a business if you have no other knowledge or expertise you can base your business on than business itself? To me it’s never made sense. A business should come from deep knowledge of a particular field which blooms into an idea rather than pure business knowledge applied secondarily to a field. But I suppose the best businesses come from a combination of the two.

Chris Walker explained to us in a set of lectures the process of creating a business and writing a detailed business plan. Although I do not necessarily have an innate passion for business, it was a welcome introduction to something us biology students are often oblivious to and which could significantly benefit our field. Indeed, what could drastically influence the course of events, in our era, in terms of climate change, is for biology students to be able to apply their knowledge to practical solutions rather than furthering pure science and contributing to increasing levels of theoretical knowledge. There is an urgent need for biology graduates to apply their knowledge in radical new business ideas.

More than anything, I think Chris walker’s persona and charisma were most enjoyable and greatly benefitted the lectures. He was able to generate enthusiasm and demonstrate the necessity for business creation in sciences, as well as the huge diversity of potential businesses. He also highlighted some of the key issues in creating a successful business and potential solutions.

Overal, I must say I have benefitted from these sessions and look forward to his “Dragon’s den” event in March.

Last semester I was able to attend a set of lectures given by Caire Brass regarding UK graduate employment and general advice on finding and obtaining a job as a recent graduate. She went into detail on composing an effective CV and also set up a mock assessment center, about which I have written in another blog post.

Overall, the series of lectures was quite useful. I learnt a lot from the section dedicated to CV writing especially, a skill which I had not yet mastered. While I had already written myself a CV, I did not previously understand just how important they are and how much of a difference they can make. Employers apparently spend just a few seconds scanning a CV, so it is absolutely essential to make your CV stand out in all the right ways. My previous CV was awkward and bulky. I had not given it much thought, thinking it would “do the trick”. I have since updated it with more recent information and a better format and structure.

CV writing is difficult. One must condense a life-time’s worth of achievements into a short, punchy page of relevant information. One size does not fit all. Different jobs have different requirements and your CV should always be targeted to those specific requirements that you need to prove you fulfill, just as a cover letter would.

CVs are not only useful for job-seeking. They are also a necessary part of an application to further studies, which is what I aim to do. Given that my degree is coming to an end and I am preparing myself for what’s to come, it was urgent that I obtain not only academic but also technical skills to improve my employability. CV writing is one of those and maybe one of the most important, as it determines whether or not you are even considered for further stages of an application process.

However, I must say I was quite disappointed in the job-seeking advice that was given to us. It was suggested we use job-seeking platforms on the internet to find available positions, which seems to be a popular method here in the UK. I do not think this is an effective way of finding a fulfilling job, as most opening are for basic, unspecialised jobs. Rather than a bottom up approach like this one, which shows you any jobs which loosely correspond to the criteria you input, I find a top down method is much more rewarding and effective in the long term. One must find an institution of which work you admire and which you find truly interesting and work towards obtaining a position there or in related institutions you have found by researching their partners or study area. Obtaining a job may come through applying for work experience or contacting the people in charge, but however hard it is, it’ll always be more rewarding than settling for an adequate position found on a broad website.

I aim to put the knowledge I gained from these lectures to work when seeking a masters degree in Marine Biology and/or a job in a research institute.

The mock assessment center was an exciting opportunity to experience an aspect of finding a job that I hadn’t before reflected upon. It had not occurred to me that employers would want to observe potential recruits in a social setting as they interact and cooperate to solve tasks, in addition to individual interviews. It was interesting seeing what could be expected of me in such a situation, where the link between the tasks presented and the desired job is not immediately obvious. Indeed, the tasks are designed to show skills and limitations in broader domains and help evaluate more general abilities, rather than specific theoretical or practical knowledge.

In our case, we had to demonstrate two things. First, our ability to work in a team was evaluated by having us develop a survival plan based on a set of objects, by sharing ideas with the group, explaining, listening and compromising. We were then asked to face another group and justify our choices, testing our ability to hold a debate and communicate ideas. We were observed individually, of course, but primarily as members of a larger unit, and our contributions to the team were the focus of the task.

Most importantly, the examiners weren’t there to seek out what some could view as more desirable character traits, such as more outgoing personalities in a team-building exercice for example, but how well different people were able to capitalise on there own personalities to complete the task at hand. Assessment centres aren’t about judging the qualities of a person, they are about judging the qualities of an employee.

At the end of the assessment activities, we also participated in mock interviews, which were of great help in preparing for the type of questions we could be asked, but the feedback was often too nice, coming from our peers.

 

 

I attended a lecture given by Dr. Jones of Bangor University, regarding further study opportunities in the UK. Specifically, Dr. Jones spoke about masters in Bangor and elsewhere and explained the difference between taught masters and research masters, where the first one is quite similar to an undergraduate degree, while the second requires much more independent work around a research project, with little taught material.

I want to continue my studies, not least because I don’t have the courage yet to enter the job market, and I think a masters degree is the right way to go. However, I plan to look into what my home country of France has to offer, rather than continue my studies in the UK.

On October 12, 2018, I had the opportunity to go to a seminar held by Mikelis Grivins of the Baltic Studies Centre. He spoke of the importance of wild foraging in his home country of Latvia and elsewhere in Europe as well as the social dynamics that motivate it and the dynamics it in turn generates.

Coming from a large city, I was unfamiliar with the concept of wild foraging beyond its definition. Foraging is the collecting and eating of wild plants, fruit and fungi. They are sometimes also transformed into secondary products such as tea, jams and beer, which are consumed by the forager, or shared with others, generating trades within and between the foraging community and the general population.

Despite being common in continental Europe after WWII, it has since died down in Western Europe, where few people now forage. However, in Eastern Europe, wild foraging is still a very common practice. 90% of the Latvian population forages, showing how important it is in the culture, and revealing that the practice isn’t reserved only to inhabitants of rural areas, but also to those of more urbanised areas. This is because wild foraging isn’t considered solely as a way to obtain food, but has entered the culture as a form of meditation, and is enjoyed as a family activity.

The popularity of wild foraging in Eastern Europe and the Baltics is probably a consequence of the multiple past and ongoing crises in the past century, from independence in 1918, to Soviet occupation after WWII and more recent economic crises. This situation has encouraged the population to turn regularly towards nature to provide necessary food and therefore rely more heavily on foraging. Since then, the practice has become more of a hobby than a necessity. Products of wild foraging also enter the mainstream economy, where they are sometimes used as marketing, showing their importance to the people.

I have never foraged, but I now see it as an attractive activity, especially for the meditative benefits mentioned by the seminarist. It is an effective way of maintaining a close link with nature and a relationship which ultimately leads to heightened respect and awareness towards our natural surroundings. Furthermore, wild foraging as an economically productive activity could drive conservation and management products and generate enthusiasm. However, I think it would be difficult to establish foraging in regions where it is not yet popular and in urbanised areas, where a potential stigma might exist, or where it would be impractical.

I don’t think I would consider wild foraging as a potential career option, not least because I have trouble imaging how a career in that field would even present itself. But I am now aware of it, and might engage in it as a hobby.

I was excited when Richard Schirres came to talk to us about the United Nations’ (UN) role in driving forward ecological awareness and action, on Friday 28 September.

My mother works for the UN, so I have, from a very young age, been aware of and exposed to the political efforts of the international giant, and its work in promoting global peace.

As much as I knew that the UN was involved in ecological missions, it was an interesting opportunity to learn about the steps taken by the institution to gradually include the environment in its responsibilities, and its more recent actions in terms of environmental protection and awareness.

Most importantly, the role of the UN and other large supranational institutions such as the European Union is to coordinate global action and set goals for countries to follow, in an effort to spurn enthusiasm, or, if that fails, to pressure reluctant states into falling in line with ecological guidelines. Given the urgency of the present situation, with climate change impacting ecological processes globally and the onset of a mass extinction, it is vital for organisations to generate the potential for change and create a united front. However, as highlighted by the seminarist, the UN, as other large institutions, are often slow moving and must sometimes make large concessions, which reduce the scope of their actions. It is therefore important to promote ecological advocacy at smaller scales and ensure efforts are led by enthusiastic and dynamic groups.

Involvement in the ecological sphere was not a priority upon the UN’s creation. The main drive was political, but concerns for the environment soon arose in close contact to political issues. Indeed, the UN tasks itself with the “prevention and removal of threats to peace”. Climate change, and the issues it brings with it, such as rising sea levels or desertification, poses a major threat to populations all around the globe, as shown by the numbers (current and projected) of climate refugees. There is direct link between maintaining world peace and protecting of the environment. It is now more obvious than ever to me that politics on the world stage are closely paired to the issues of environmental health, as are economics, through sustainable development. From the creation of the UNESCO in 1946 to include educational, scientific and cultural advancement in the scope of the UN, to the recent Paris agreements (COP 21) of 2016, it is clear that the UN has a leading role in ensuring the protection of the environment.

I had never thought of the UN as a possible career path, because it had never really for me been associated to ecological action. Now, despite Schirres’ somewhat poor delivery, my interest for the subject has been spiked and I now see working on the political side of environmental protection as a valid option.