We are very excited to announce the launch of the Albatross Project blog!<\/p>\n
This blog will primarily serve as a way for the members of our team<\/a> to communicate our research to both the public and other researchers. We also hope to give a bit of insight into the research process. Research papers and popular media tend to portray science as a linear process: either slow and steady, or with big leaps, but always knowing where you’re going. The reality is often very different.<\/p>\n For me the path to this project has been slow and circuitous. I came across an advertisement for a position at the British Antarctic Survey<\/a> by chance while I was a postdoc at the University of Cambridge<\/a>. I applied for the job, got an interview and met Richard Phillips<\/a> (collaborating on this project) along with Mervyn Freeman and Nick Watkins, who together had worked on a project evaluating Levy flight models for albatross movement<\/a>. In my interview I suggested that a better way forward may be to build more biologically explicit foraging models, such as state dependent foraging models. I didn’t get the job. But Mervyn and Richard were interested enough in my ideas to collaborate on a couple of grant proposals (unsuccessful) and to co-mentor a summer student. Then my position at Cambridge ended and I thought that the albatross work was behind me. Instead I started focusing on other things including a cool, new (to me) approach called Dynamic Energy Budget<\/a> (DEB<\/a>) theory. I still was thinking about albatrosses occasionally, but I knew I couldn’t do much until I had my own lab. So I waited…<\/p>\n Almost 5 years after I met Richard and Mervyn, with my new appointment<\/a> to USF<\/a> and a new collaborator, Sadie Ryan<\/a>, I got to dream about albatrosses again. Combining my old ideas with new methods (including DEB) and Sadie’s spatial and data experience, we were successful in getting funding for this project. I am really excited about the possibilities, and looking forward to sharing with you all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are very excited to announce the launch of the Albatross Project blog! This blog will primarily serve as a way for the members of our team to communicate our research to both the public and other researchers. … <\/p>\n