This week we have an interview with Ross Gray.
I met Ross whilst on a field course in South Africa as part of our BSc at Imperial and we both ended up on the same MRes course, based at Imperial’s Silwood Park
campus. Although we had many modules together during our undergrad and MRes
courses, Ross has focused much more on ecology, especially topics like community composition, and has done a lot
more exotic fieldwork than I have! As you will read, he is still very interested in ecology and is turning his attention to
how the relatively new technological advances in the use of drones can start to address bigger and more complex ecological questions. I
was lucky enough to catch Ross when he wasn’t listening to Hip-Hop,
chain-watching a tv series or writing code, to find out his PhDetails...
Well let’s start by
talking about completely unscientific stuff. Favourite band/musical artist pre
1980?
The Who
Favourite band/musical
artist post 1980?
Logic
Favourite movie?
That’s a tough one, so many great films. Could
maybe give you a top 5? Back to the Future, Quadrophenia, Snatch, Ocean’s
Eleven, Superbad.
Where do you study and
who are your supervisors?
I study at Imperial College London within the
new ‘quantitative and modelling skills in ecology and evolution’ centre for
doctoral training (CDT) and my supervisors are Robert Ewers and Mirko Kovac.
What year of your PhD
are you in?
My 1st year
Who’s giving you the
money – and for how long?
It’s NERC funded but through the CDT. The
funding is for three and a half years
Do you have any
publications – if so where?
Yes, I recently got my masters work accepted in
Nature Scientific Reports
Did you do a masters -
was it about?
Yes, I did a masters in Tropical Forest Ecology
at Imperial. My project focused on how tropical forest disturbance altered the
competitive interactions within the diverse ant community of Borneo.
How many PhDs did you
apply for – what were you looking for?
After my masters I applied for three or four
but didn’t get them. A couple of them were looking at social cognition in bees
and some other broader ecology ones. I took a year out following this working
as a research assistant at Oxford while applying for a few more the following
year. Second time round, my applications were more focused, which I think was a
better approach and luckily got the PhD at Imperial. I was mostly looking for
what the project involved and the university it was based at but the supervisor
did play a part. I feel my ideals were better defined the second-time round
though.
What is the best
fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
I guess the work for my masters was pretty special.
Sitting by myself deep in the primary jungle I came into contact with lots of
wildlife. The most special moments were probably a mother and baby Orangutan
playing in a tree about 10m away and a family of Gibbons playing in the tree
above me and watching me do my fieldwork for a short while. But I guess I have
been very lucky with extravagant fieldwork over the years including research in
Namibia, Mongolia, South Africa and Kenya.
What is the most
bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during fieldwork – did it work?
I guess using a selfie stick attached to an
inverted tripod to film ant interactions was pretty botched but turned out to
work perfectly. Although I have a feeling the design for my insect flight intercept
traps may come close – yet to be created.
What one piece of
advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Probably that there is no rush and not to
compromise on the project – make sure it’s exactly what you want – a lot of
people rush into projects because they’re desperate to get a PhD and end up
really not having a good time. I guess if I could add another it’s don’t be
afraid to ask questions – no one knows everything!
What supervisor traits
are important to you?
I don’t really like someone babying me since I
like my independence, but I think it is important to have someone who can step
in to help when I do get out of my depth. I think someone you can be social
with is important – if you don’t get on it’s a bit awkward.
What do you think are
the worst supervisor traits?
Absence and someone that doesn’t value having
PhD students within their lab due to being too focused on their own work.
In one sentence what
is your PhD about?
Understanding how phenological events in
tropical trees such as leaf flush and fruiting drives the phenological movement
and present of invertebrates.
What has been your
academic highlight of the last year?
I guess my paper getting accepted, took a long
time!
Which academic idol/scientist
have you met?
I don’t think I really have any academic idols
in my field to be honest. I guess on a larger scale I admire people like Neil
De Grasse Tyson and Brian Cox in their approach to get more people, especially
youth, interested in science.
Which academic idol/scientist
would you most like to meet?
Not really thought about it.
Do you have a
favourite paper?
I don’t really have a favourite, but I guess a
paper which I feel was well written and eye opening was the Andy Purvis andAndy Hector 2000 paper in Nature showing how much biodiversity we don’t know
about and the risk this poses on species loss.
What has been your
favourite conference so far – why?
I’ve only been to one, the ‘Heart of Borneo’
conference, which was a good experience but some of the talks weren’t that
scientific or relevant to my work.
What hours do you
typically work?
Probably a bit less than I should. I work
whenever to allow me to stay on top of my self-imposed deadlines. Typically, an
office day would be 9:30 until 6 but I also work well early in the morning at
home.
What do you do when
you’re not working – how do you balance it with your phd?
I like to travel both inside and outside the
UK. I mostly do outdoor activities or explore new places. I’m also an avid movie
and TV series watcher… I have to be honest. I normally travel over weekends and
relax after 5 or 6 pm during the weeks. I’m more of a morning person.
If a genie could grant
you one wish to help with your phd what would you wish for?
Probably to have access to more resources –
like maybe a better drone. I think part of the challenge for more technical
PhDs is to work out how best to use your funding, which can be a limiting
factor.
What would be your
dream job?
What I’m doing now! Honestly.
Where do you see
yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully in my first or second postdoc.
One word to sum up
your future in academia:
Enigmatic
What do you want to
achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
As much travelling as feasible
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