Q&As

Mark Witton is a UK-based palaeontologist and artist. Since completing a PhD at the University of Portsmouth researching pterosaur ecology and diversity, he has predominantly worked as a consultant, author and artist, although he also remains active in palaeontological research. His artwork has been displayed around the world, from London’s Natural History Museum to Yale’s Peabody Museum. He is also known for his work researching and promoting the ‘Crystal Palace Dinosaurs’, which are among the world’s first naturalistic dinosaur reconstructions. Ahead of the bicentenary of the naming of Megalosaurus, we caught up with him to discuss the art and science of dinosaur reconstruction.

The US government has launched a national nature assessment, to be completed by 2026. This assessment is designed to take stock of changes in the country’s lands, waters, biodiversity, ecosystems and the benefits they provide. We spoke to Heather Tallis about the aims of the project, and how individuals can contribute to its development. Heather is the Acting Director of the assessment for the US Global Change Research Program, as well as the Assistant Director for Biodiversity and Conservation Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Jennifer Grenz is currently a sessional lecturer at the University of British Columbia and owns a land healing company, Greener This Side. Her recently completed PhD dissertation explores the science of invasive species management and restoration through the lens of an ‘Indigenous ecology’, which she defines as “relationally guided healing of our lands, waters, and relations through intentional shaping of ecosystems by humans to bring a desired balance that meets the fluid needs of communities while respecting and honouring our mutual dependence through reciprocity.” Here we ask about her research and experiences as an Indigenous woman in ecology.

Kimberleigh Tommy is a PhD candidate and science communicator, based at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where she studies hominin functional morphology as it relates to locomotion. She has won numerous awards for both her science communication and research; most recently she was named one of The Mail and Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans making a difference in their fields as well as a recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science South African National Young Talents programme awards. We asked her about her background, her interests and her hopes for the future.

We talk to Dr Swanne Gordon, a Jamaican-Canadian Assistant Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, United States, about her research on natural diversity and experience as a Black person in academia.

The 2nd Palaeontological Virtual Congress will take place on 1–15 May 2020. We talked to the chairs of this event, Vicente D. Crespo Roures and Esther Manzanares Ubeda, who were also organizers of the inaugural conference.

Global environmental change is largely indifferent to political boundaries, but meeting the challenges they pose in the future will inevitably require cross-border cooperation. We talk to David Lehrer, Executive Director at The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, about how this challenge is at the heart of their academic mission.

Felix Finkbeiner founded Plant-for-the-Planet as a nine year old. In the ten years since then, 15 billion trees have been planted globally as part of the initiative. Tom Crowther was inspired by this mission, and decided to help by conducting a research project to map the world’s trees, revealing that there are just over 3 trillion trees on Earth. We spoke to them both about their collaboration.

We speak to An Cliquet, a professor in the Department of European, Public and International Law at Ghent University, about working at the interface between conservation, biodiversity and law.

The theme of UN World Wildlife Day 2017 was ‘Listen to the young voices’. We talk to Mya-Rose Craig (@BirdgirlUK), a young naturalist, environmentalist and writer, who was appointed European Green Capital Ambassador for her home town of Bristol, UK, in 2015.

The EvoKE project promotes formal discussion about the state of evolutionary education, outreach and policy in Europe. We talked to the organizing team (Xana Sá-Pinto, Héloïse Dufour, Inga Ubben, Tania Jenkins and Kristin Jenkins), about the first international EvoKE conference and future projects.

Global Forest Watch provides up-to-date and interactive information on forest cover for governments, the private sector, NGOs, journalists, universities and the general public. We talked to Director Crystal Davis about how it works, its achievements and its future plans.

Translating biodiversity science into policy is the complex challenge taken on by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. We talked to Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie about how it works and what it hopes to achieve.