This was recorded in December 2022, be prepared for holiday themes!

In this special episode, hosts Charlie Outhwaite and Gonzalo Albaladejo Robles interview attendees of the British Ecological Society annual meeting. In December 2022 the meeting took place in Edinburgh. Guests share their research interests, tips for first time attendees and some of the challenges they face in their current career stage.

SPECIAL EPISODE: Mini interviews at the British Ecological Society annual meeting

Charlie Russell, Natural England

In this episode, host Charlie Outhwaite talks with Charlie Russell. At the time of recording, Charlie had recently completed his masters research and was working as an advisor for Natural England. Since recording, Charlie has started a new research assistant post and will soon be starting a PhD just as he hoped. Congratulations Charlie! Charlie shares the challenges of navigating university and academia when you come from a working class background. He offers advice to students in similar positions and highlights some of the opportunities available to boost your CV. He also takes us through he role at Natural England and compares working in this sector to his experience so far in academic research.

Spot the difference: academic research and working for Natural England

Eberechi Osuagwu,  Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Nigeria

In this episode, host Charlie Outhwaite talks with lecturer and PhD candidate Eberechi Osuagwu. Eberechi is currently affiliated with the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria and Morgan State University, Maryland, USA. Eberechi speaks about the challenges associated with working in academia in Nigeria, the journey she has undertaken to get a teaching position and gives some great advice to students in Nigeria who might also be seeking similar career paths. You can find Eberechi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/eberechi-osuagwu-806b58252

Academia in Nigeria, a dream of teaching

In this episode of the CBER Lunchbox Podcast, host Jess Williams chats to Joshua Powell, a PhD student and National Geographic Explorer. They discuss the work Joshua is doing on transboundary conservation of large, threatened, and traded carnivores in Northeast Asia and his past work with rangers across the world. Have a listen to find out about the South Korean badger trade, what it means to be a National Geographic Explorer, and Joshua’s top tips for public speaking.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Badger creams, tiger farms, and Seoul’s population of Amur leopards

In this episode, host Silvia Ceaușu chats with Josep (Pep) Serra-Diaz who is an assistant professor at AgroParisTech in France. After getting his PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Pep started a journey that ended up taking his research on vegetation dynamics from local to global scale, from experiments to models and big data. We discuss real-world impact as an academic, his journey from research assistant to engineering company to PhD, and the challenges of translating science into forest management actions. We also discuss teaching translational ecology, researching across different academic systems, the advantages and disadvantages of the French engineering school system and being gay in academia.

Translating research into action and being gay in academia

In this episode, host Silvia Ceaușu chats with Sarobidy Rakotonarivo, a research fellow at University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. After receiving a master’s degree and PhD in Europe, she now works on understanding how tenure rights affect forest restoration and conservation in Madagascar. She was one of the recipients of the top 100 young Conservation Leaders Awards offered by the African Wildlife Foundation and WWF, among other organizations. Join us to find out more about how to mitigate climate change through forest restoration in Madagascar, how a biodiversity-rich country can help its poor farmers, and how does academic life looks like in Africa. You can find the transcript of this episode on the YouTube cannel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNgjymoS-Dc and on the host's website: https://silviaceausu.github.io/posts/2023/01/blog-post-3/.

Conservation research and academic life in Madagascar 

BES 2021 Special

In this episode of the CBER Lunchbox Podcast, host Jess Williams chats to final year PhD student Owen Middleton. Owen shares how he fell in love with ecology (with the help of sangria), the best thing about doing a PhD, advice he wished he’d heard at the start of his PhD, and what he’d do with unlimited funding. He also reveals the one thing you should never go into the field without and some of his newfound hobbies resulting from the UK being in lockdown.

The life of a PhD student: trusting your gut whilst avoiding howler monkey poop to the face

In this episode of the CBER Lunchbox Podcast, Silvia Ceaușu is joined by Susanne Marieke Vogel, who is a postdoc at Aarhus University in Denmark. After the podcast was recorded, Susanne was offered a position of assistant professor at Open University in the Netherlands, which she will start at the beginning of 2022. In the podcast, she shares details about her life as a master graduate in search of a dream job and how she stumbled upon her PhD project. We also discuss the ethical issues that Western scientists need to consider when working in conservation, and the advantages and challenges of a life in science. You can follow Silvia Ceaușu on Twitter @SilviaCeausu or check out her website: silviaceausu.github.io. The transcript of this conversation can be found on the YouTube channel and on the host's website: https://silviaceausu.github.io/posts/2021/12/blog-post-2/.

Life goals and conscious science while trying to understand why elephants eat people’s crops

Careers in science

The CBER Lunchbox Podcast aims to highlight what it's like to be a scientist. In each episode, we will sit down with a guest for an informal chat about how they got into science, what their day-to-day is like, and the ups and downs of being a scientist.

CBER Lunchbox Podcast

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