The last day of the Easter vacation saw the department come together for its annual Seminar Day.  Short talks were given from across the broad range of subjects currently researched in the department.   The talks provide an opportunity for researchers, from all levels, to highlight their work to the rest of the department; whether it be some data they had just brought back from the field or things they have been working on for some time. 

This year five of our MPhil and PhD students were persuaded to give “PechaKucha” talks, ie 20 powerpoint slides, 20 seconds per slide.  All five students did a fantastic job, giving clear, interesting and to the point talks.  The talks were judged by a small panel with Syuan-Jyun Sun’s talk on “Hot under the collar: a thermal by-product mutualism between burying beetles and their phoretic mites” winning first prize.  Vix Franks was runner-up with her talk on “Copy parents or follow friends? Juvenile forage behaviour changes in response to social environment”

There were poster presentations by PhD students again covering a large array of subjects.  The posters were also judged.  First prize went to Charlotte Payne on The contribution of the edible caterpillar Cirina butyrospermi to the food security of smallholder famers in Burkina Faso.  Runner-up went to Emma Garnett on “Less meat, less heat: serving more vegetarian options increase vegetarian sales in self-serve cafeterias”.

The seminar day programme schedules in ample break time to give the speakers and poster presenters an opportunity to talk about their work with the members of the department they might not normally meet.  This year these discussions spilled out into the Old Divinity School courtyard, bathed in glorious sunshine.

This year’s Seminar day was expertly organised by Dr Kiyoko Gotanda and Dr Stephen Montgomery.