This month’s Network News update was going to be written by Joe, one of our trainees on the Identification Trainers for the Future traineeship programme, but we have some rather exciting news on that front!
Joe became a father on the 23rd August, a few days earlier than planned which means he is taking a little bit of time away from the traineeship on paternity leave. We are of course all very happy for him, his wife and their new son (name still to be agreed at the time of writing!). This therefore means that writing this update has fallen to me, and we have quite a lot to report.
Our trainees have all dispersed off to their curation placements this month so the Angela Marmont Centre seems rather quiet at the moment, but until recently they have been alternating between working on our Big Seaweed Search citizen science project, helping out our Identification and Advisory Service and of course working on their own collections. Our final species identification workshop has also been completed, with the Museum’s Gavin Broad & David Notton delivering an excellent week-long session on identifying hymenoptera both in the field and in collections.
In something of a change of pace, and very excitingly, we were also invited to help with the survey work for a BBC4 documentary so spent a few days working with a film crew on location surveying and identifying pollinator species. A fascinating experience for all of us, not least because we also got to work with Chris Packham who is presenting the programme which will be aired next summer. All this filming experience also set the trainees up very well for their final task in Phase 2 – running a Nature Live session at the Museum. Nature Lives are the opportunity for Museum visitors to come along and hear from a scientist about their work. For this year’s Nature Live our trainees chose to not only talk in the studio, but also have an outside broadcast to the Wildlife Garden to highlight the range of work they have been doing. They delivered a fantastic session to a packed audience and you’ll be able to see the recording of it on our webpage soon.
Our trainees will be reporting back over the next 3 months on their curation placements. These enable our trainees to really develop their identification and curation skills for their specialist areas of interest. Jas has gone off to work with Gavin Broad on ichneumon wasps, while Krisztina has also gone to the hymenoptera section to work on the bee collections with David Notton. Niki will be starting work on the UK noctuid moth collections this week with Lepidoptera curator Geoff Martin. Joe & Sophie are both working under the supervision of Holger Thüs, with Joe focusing on lichens and Sophie working on slime moulds. Even in their first few days they have already been finding some fascinating specimens, Sophie recently reported finding a type specimen in the slime mould collection which was collected in 1930 by the Emperor of Japan!
I should probably also take this opportunity to update you all on what our first cohort of trainees are now up to. Mike is still happy working for the London Wildlife Trust as Conservation Ecologist, a position he started directly after the end of the traineeship. Chloe recently accepted a role as Conservation Officer for the RSPB in Brighton while Anthony has started working in Oxford for EarthWatch. This means that he still gets to work with the AMC on the EarthwormWatch project we are working in partnership with EarthWatch on. Sally has moved to Sheffield and is busy with the Sheffield Wildlife Trust and Sorsby Natural History Society while Katy has recently returned from working for Operation Wallacea surveying & teaching entomology in Greece.
As for me, well hopefully of interest to many of you reading this, I have been busy launching the recruitment for our 3rd cohort of trainees. We will be opening the application window for candidates for our next 5 trainees on the 19th September for 4 weeks (closing on the 17th October). Full details of how to apply through our online application system will be available on the Museum’s website from the 19th, however confirmation of the deadlines, background to the traineeships and information about the two taster sessions we are running this year for potential applicants can be found on the website now.
Written by Steph West
Project Manager – Identification Trainers for the Future.