The 16th International Seabird Group conference

Three of our lab members headed to University of Coimbra in Portugal in September 2024, to present their work on Procellariiforms, Puffins and Kittiwakes at the Seabird Group conference.

Here, Ellie Knight-Rolfe (MSc by Research) writes about her first conference...

Left to right: Katie Bickerton, Ellie Knight-Rolfe, and Sally Kunzig

An Early Career Researcher's First Academic Conference  

Elanor Knight-Rolfe  

Back in September 2024, I set off for Portugal with a bottle of SPF 50, an academic poster, and a vague idea of what to expect. I'd never been to a seabird conference - or an academic conference at all. I'd done some research on the region, and knew to expect heat, humidity, and hills - and on those, Coimbra truly delivered. It also delivered amazing views, gorgeous architecture, and some of the best food and drink (we tried as many places as possible, to be certain).  

The conference itself was at the top of a hill, in the beautiful Universidade de Coimbra. As we arrived for the first day, we joined the stream of conference attendees and got talking to some colleagues from different universities. Although I only knew the two people I'd travelled with, I knew there were one or two people there that I'd spoken with for my project on kittiwakes, and I was keen to meet them in person! Any concerns I had about introducing myself to strangers disappeared as soon as we gathered for the breakfast, as several people went out of their way to speak to me - perhaps I looked a bit lost. We got acquainted over coffee, juice and pastries, and talked a little about our projects, which gave me a great sense of the breadth and depth of the research projects represented by the attendees. 

The conference schedule was packed full of interesting talks and presentations, with some that I immediately highlighted as essential listening for my project research - however, considering this was my first conference, I was determined to attend them all, and speak to anyone who would entertain my questions! The atmosphere was friendly and collaborative, with plenty of humour and so many opportunities to network with scientists working on adjacent research. I was told that the ‘seabird lot’ were very friendly and welcoming, and that's definitely what I found to be true. I came away from the conference with pages of notes and things to follow up on when I returned to England - and I came away from Coimbra with a new appreciation for the food, the culture, the scenery and the language (which I absolutely butchered in my attempts to learn key phrases). All in all, it was a fantastic first conference, and I couldn't have imagined how much fun I'd have, or how useful and inspiring it would be for me as an early career researcher. I'd put my name down for another one in a heartbeat! 

Katie presented a poster on the ProcBe project's work on the refinement of demographic rates and population modelling.

Ellie also presented a poster on her MSc by Research work on the impacts of climatic variation on kittiwakes over the last 30 years.

Sally (with some trepidation!) presented a short talk on her MSc by Research work on the age structure of puffin populations using bill morphology (and did a smashing job!)