Dr Joseph Millard has recently published a new paper as part of the GLobal Insect Threat-Response Synthesis (GLiTRS) project, titled ‘A Multithreat Meta-Analytic Database for Understanding Insect Biodiversity Change’. This represents an incredible achievement and is the result of a huge collaborative effort.
To celebrate, we reached out to Joe for some insights into his fellowship experiences so far and to better understand his project.
Joe shared “The aim of my fellowship is to research new forms of AI and economic mechanism that might help solve the biodiversity crisis in the future. Specifically, I have been thinking about how autonomous payment systems might be combined with remote biodiversity monitoring to derive new forms of biodiversity credit.
“I have been very fortunate to have interacted with some brilliant scientists in my PhD and postdoctoral work, both at Cambridge and elsewhere, who I have continued to collaborate with on my fellowship. I have the opportunity to learn from members of the Agroecology group led by Professor Lynn Dicks, and from the broader set of conservation groups at Cambridge, including the Conservation Science group, Insect Ecology group, and the many conservation organisations housed in the David Attenborough Building.
“My fellowship has been hugely enjoyable. The intellectual freedom I've been given to slow down, and think has been a real privilege. At an early career stage, researchers often do not yet have the administrative responsibilities that come with seniority, meaning I can focus on learning and my research. I do miss being involved in supervision and teaching. A fellowship is in some ways like doing another PhD, as opposed to a research associate position where you're integrated into a broader group of early career researchers with an individual goal in mind.”
We asked Joe if he could share any advice for PhD students and those applying for their first post-doctoral roles. Joe told us, “My first piece of advice is that published papers are the primary means for you to demonstrate your capability as a researcher. As a PhD student, aim for quality not quantity, and prioritise papers you are leading as first author.
“Second is I'd suggest not applying for a postdoctoral fellowship straight out of a PhD. To both be competitive for a fellowship, and to increase the size of your network, my suggestion would be to start with postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) positions on large projects that sit outside your immediate area. This will give you time to finish off any PhD papers, supervise some master’s students, and demonstrate again that you can excel picking up a new area of research.”
We look forward to seeing how Joe’s project develops and cannot wait to read future publications.
Image credit: Tracy Pemberton
Are you funded partly by the Isaac Newton Trust? Have you recently had a project or personal achievement you would like to share? We would love to hear from you and share your accomplishments with the wider community. No success is too small! Get in touch by emailing us at administrator@newtontrust.cam.ac.uk