The bee scientist

What does an average day look like for you?

I'm an evolutionary ecologist. I combine evolutionary biology with ecology so we can understand the processes of what's going on outside in the real world. I'm particularly interested in insect pollinators such as bees, wasps, hover flies, and butterflies. I’m interested in what's threatening them, but also how we can then solve those problems and actually start to understand how we can conserve them better.

When was the first moment you truly felt like a scientist?

I was always very interested in the natural world, from watching David Attenborough on the TV through to having a very big garden, from making wormeries to collecting snails. But I think really, the first time was probably when my Mum and Dad took me and my sister to a Field Studies Council retreat when I was about eight or nine. I did this really cool thing where you can put out these live traps for things like mice, shrews. We were then able to hold these live mammals in our hands, and then also record things like their size, their health status. All of that data went towards understanding their populations. It was a sort of citizen science approach, so to speak. I was only eight years old, but I think it's the first time I felt like I had done some real science. That really inspired me.

Was there ever a time that you didn't feel like a scientist?

I suffer a little bit from impostor syndrome. I'm in a great university, surrounded by some really amazing scientists that are doing some really innovative work, and sometimes I do research that doesn't quite go to plan. Sometimes I put in a grant, try to get money to support research, and I don't get that money and it makes me suddenly doubt myself. Can I really do this?

The more you just chat to other scientists, the more you realise they're all in that same boat. I will admit that science is not simple and easy. You do have to work hard at it. There will be ups and downs, but when you do a really amazing experiment, you find out something new and you get that published, or you get more money to support it, it's a very satisfying and rewarding experience.

When you first start in science, you're not necessarily an expert in any one thing. Certainly, going from high school to university, I really didn't know what I wanted to be. I knew I loved the natural world and I had an inclination that science might be the way, but I didn't really know what job I was going to take. For me, I just love asking questions and trying to find the answers to them. The more I got into science, the more I've found it rewarding.

As you start to further your career, you become an expert in things, and it's quite amazing because you can get call ups. I've been called up by Parliament to come give evidence about how things like pesticides are affecting insect pollinators.

In your experience, what is one of the biggest myths around being a scientist?

Well, for one, I'm not a bearded old man that just sits around in a lab coat! You know, scientists can be young people, they can be sociable people. But I think the biggest one is when I hear how scientists are named and referred to in the news. It's given in a very polarized way. Either the scientists have found something that's right, or they found something that's wrong. But science isn't always like that. You often find evidence to support an argument or a hypothesis and you keep working to try and find the truth, But it's very rare that you find the solution quickly. It's a slow process, mainly because science is a very meticulous process. It doesn't happen overnight. So I think sometimes the myth is that science is an exact science. Often it isn't.

As exciting as it must feel to be asked for a definitive answer, you can’t always provide it.

Yeah, I agree. I once gave evidence at an Environmental Steering Committee about the risks of pesticides to bees. I was asked, ‘can you unequivocally tell us whether pesticides are causing a decline in bees?’

But I'm a scientist, I can never say yes or no. I can say, ‘from the evidence that we have, it suggests it might be causing this risk’. But in fact, at that point in time when we were giving evidence we couldn't say with any confidence that the pesticides were definitively causing declines of bees. We could say ‘there are a number of different contributors, and pesticides are probably one of them, at least with the evidence that we have. But more work is needed’.

Why do you think someone should consider an educational or career pathway in science?

I took a degree in zoology at university. I had taken chemistry, biology and geography at A-level. So I was always interested in science. For me, I got two things from going into higher education. In general, it really opens your horizons. You learn skills, particularly problem solving skills, that you wouldn't necessarily learn at A-level. But on the other side, it's also about getting a new social life. It gave me friends for life. I'm twenty years down the line and I'm still going on holiday and seeing my uni mates. 

But I think in science, it's about solving problems in a very logical and meticulous fashion. And it's about thinking innovatively – that's another key one. Science really underpins innovation, leading edge technology, thinking about how to solve problems in a very logical way. So, if that's something which interests you, and you want to be at the forefront of solving problems like climate change and green futures, then science will be for you.

You mentioned doing field work. How far has that field work taken you? 

The amazing thing about being an ecologist and academic is you get a lot of opportunities to travel. Not only to go to some amazing places for conferences, but as part of field work. I've been almost all the way across the world, and experienced different ecosystems and studied different organisms. From Spain and Estonia, where I studied birds and ants, to Japan where I climbed Mount Fuji to study ant species. I've even been to places like Borneo to study organisms in the rainforest. I got to see orangutans and all sorts of amazing creatures. I've been to the Maldives to understand how pesticide exposures are affecting small island systems, and even into the outback of Australia, where I studied lizards and got to see kangaroos hopping by.

I'm incredibly lucky. Right now, I’m setting up a long term experiment in the Arctic, in Swedish Lapland. We're focusing on how climate change is affecting bumblebees. It's amazing, you see bumblebees flying over snow! I’ll get to share my field site with moose, reindeer, lynx, golden eagles, lemmings. I'm very, very lucky.