Becky Boulton
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bb-phd.bsky.social
Becky Boulton
@bb-phd.bsky.social
Lecturer in Evolutionary Ecology at University of Stirling. Wasp lover. Occasional stand-up comic and (poor) musician.
Pinned
Warning - shameless self(wasp)-promotion coming up: On Wednesday I got to do a duet about wasps and how great they are with Greg James on the Radio 1 Breakfast show. You can listen here www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... at about 38 minutes in.
Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James - 29/05/2025 - BBC Sounds
Morning nonsense, star listeners and All the Latest Things...
www.bbc.co.uk
interested in learning about #wasps, #Scottishenlightenment and #pedagogy and being mildly amused - come to Bright club in Glasgow on Monday 10th November www.thestand.co.uk/performance/...
Bright Club Glasgow - The Stand Comedy Club
Bright Club is the thinking person variety night. Bright Club’s unique blend of comedy, academia and music has won support from New Scientist, The Guardian, ...
www.thestand.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
PhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | TREES DLA
This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...
www.trees-dla.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I've signed up to swim 20km in August to raise money for @wwf.org.uk. If anyone is able to sponsor me it would be much appreciated - link is here
socialsync.app/fundraiser/c.... Donors will be rewarded with content featuring Panda 'helping' me with my swimming. Like this one...
August 7, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
During our spring field courses, we had some excellent luck with camera trap sightings. This beautiful Roe Deer doe and her fawn were recorded by our visitors from @stir.ac.uk and we couldn’t be happier to get a glimpse of this little family @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
July 21, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
We spent a fantastic week hosting @stir.ac.uk for their Mediterranean field course. We’d like to say thank you to all involved, especially the students for their engagement and enthusiasm with their projects. Good luck with the rest of your studies! @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Too poor to science: how wealth determines who succeeds in STEM

Thought-provoking read, especially in these times of questioning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
🧪
June 27, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
With the warm weather, there were many butterflies on the wing and students from @stir.ac.uk designed projects to survey their habitat preferences. Shady and sunlit meadows, plus an avenue of lavender in flower. They saw a real variety of species. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 27, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
One student project from @stir.ac.uk involved assessing the behaviour of Pumpkinseed Sunfish in response to intrusion. Larger and smaller “males” approached the nest and the students monitored the nest-owner's response using our underwater cameras. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 27, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Always exciting to see the delicate first moments of emerging adult cicadas.
Day 1 with staff and students from @stir.ac.uk and we’ve fitted a lot in. We’ve toured the habitats, and trialled project ideas. Highlights were Black Arches moths in our moth trap, and newly emerging cicadas. It’s starting to get loud out here!
@bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 21, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
🎊Fully funded PhD position on cooperative sustainability🌳

Are you curious about
🧒 developmental,
🌍 cross-cultural
🦧 species comparative
research on cooperative sustainability?

All info here or dm me with questions!
career2.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
Please share! 🙏
Career Opportunities: PhD position Cooperative Sustainability (14208)
career2.successfactors.eu
June 5, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Please share.
We have a fully-funded PhD position on animal migration. If interested, please apply by 27 July. More about us: shawanchowdhury.com. @idiv-research.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @uq-cbcs.bsky.social

#PhDposition #Ecology #Conservation #Migration #Rstats #AcademicTwitter
June 25, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Wonderful week on the @stir.ac.uk field biology course at the amazing @meropsfieldcentre.bsky.social. Good bugs, good chat and good food. Students and staff all agree 10/10. Massive thanks to @sophiemowles.bsky.social and Fabrizio!
June 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Day 1 with staff and students from @stir.ac.uk and we’ve fitted a lot in. We’ve toured the habitats, and trialled project ideas. Highlights were Black Arches moths in our moth trap, and newly emerging cicadas. It’s starting to get loud out here!
@bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 21, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
We spent day 2 with @stir.ac.uk exploring the Camargue. We were lucky to see 7 species of heron including Squacco Herons and even Little Bitterns in the reedbeds. Further south, we saw the famous flamingos and had great views of a European Pond Terrapin @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 23, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
We took staff and students from @stir.ac.uk to the Causse Méjean to experience this unique site. We had an impressive vulture fly-by as well as seeing a Booted Eagle carrying a lizard. On to the Przewalski Horse breeding area, where we had great views. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
June 24, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Warning - shameless self(wasp)-promotion coming up: On Wednesday I got to do a duet about wasps and how great they are with Greg James on the Radio 1 Breakfast show. You can listen here www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... at about 38 minutes in.
Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James - 29/05/2025 - BBC Sounds
Morning nonsense, star listeners and All the Latest Things...
www.bbc.co.uk
May 30, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Undergrad in the life sciences? Want to do a research placement over the summer but also need a job - NERC are running the REP scheme again, paid summer research placements to widen participation in the life sciences. Details here iapetus2.ac.uk/new-rep-sche...
REP Scheme
Summer Research Experience placements for current undergraduate students.Applications for 2025 are now open. Please see our list of projects and How to Apply, below, to start your application. Ov...
iapetus2.ac.uk
April 10, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Undergrad in the life sciences? Want to do a research placement over the summer but also need a job - NERC are running the REP scheme again, paid summer research placements to widen participation in the life sciences. Details here iapetus2.ac.uk/new-rep-sche...
REP Scheme
Summer Research Experience placements for current undergraduate students.Applications for 2025 are now open. Please see our list of projects and How to Apply, below, to start your application. Ov...
iapetus2.ac.uk
April 10, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Fascinating #ASABWinter2024 plenary talk this morning by Malin Ah-King, tracing the history of perception of females in evolutionary science. It took surprisingly long for researchers to discover active female sexual strategies♀️

Her book on the topic here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
December 12, 2024 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
the fantastic Antica Čulina's plenary "Doing credible science – why would you care?" covering struggles with first meta analyses as a PhD student, issues with the current research and reward system, and challenges and benefits of transitioning to a new, open, and more reliable system
#ASABWinter2024
December 12, 2024 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
I was aware about language barriers in science, but not at the extent explained by @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social. Eye opening talk #ASABWinter2024, thank you so much! Great advises for publishers and conference organizers! @asab.org
December 13, 2024 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Becky Boulton
Global research shows that it takes non-native English speaking scientists 51% more time to write a paper! Barriers and biases in academia with respect to language. Thought-provoking plenary by Tatsuya Armano at #asabwinter2024 👏🏼

#biasesinscience #languagebarriers
December 13, 2024 at 10:23 AM