To celebrate Women in STEM day on Wednesday 11 February we’ve printed some banners to highlight some of the incredible work that the women of Bio Sci at Bristol have achieved over the years! Pop into the LSB for the remainder of Feb to check out who’s done what and when!

To mark this year's International Day of Women and Girls in Science, UNESCO is hosting an event to bring together scientists, policymakers and allies to explore actions that help build more inclusive STEM ecosystems 🔬 Join online here: www.unesco.org/en/articles/... @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Congratulations to @victoriamallinson.bsky.social for winning The Olivia Norfolk Prize for her research on the impact of spring cold snaps on bumblebee colonies. In 2026, Victoria, a Trust-supported PhD student, hopes to examine the impact of real cold snaps using the BeeWalk dataset.

Find out more about the Annual Meeting prizes here👇

Thank you so much @britishecologicalsociety.org for such an amazing opportunity to present my work at the BES annual meeting, and I am absolutely over the moon to have won the Olivia Norfolk Poster Prize. It is such an incredible honour and I am so thankful for this recognition 🐝🩵

The Olivia Norfolk Prize is awarded for the best poster presentation by a postgraduate student. Victoria won the prize for a poster communicating her research on how UK bumblebee colonies are affected by cold snaps in the spring.

Congratulations to @cbunnenberg.bsky.social and @victoriamallinson.bsky.social for winning our 2025 Annual Meeting prizes!

Congrats also to Dylan Thatcher and Alexis Gkantiragas for winning the prize for best student talks and to Cassandra Uthoff and Annie Joseph for the being awarded with the best poster prizes.

Got my hands on this amazing social insects trump card game, developed by @elvarobinson.bsky.social & her team to support inclusion bursaries for IUSSI conferences. It even has my favourite bee 😍🐝! If you want your own, for fun, outreach or teaching: www.iussi-nweurope.org/edi

I am so proud to have presented my poster on cold snap effects on bumblebee colonies at the annual BES meeting in Edinburgh! Thank you so much for having me @britishecologicalsociety.org 🐝🩵

☀️New Paper!☀️ In @ecol-evol.bsky.social Dwarf mongooses lose body mass in hot weather due to limited behavioural plasticity With top co-authors: @josharbon.bsky.social, Amy Morris-Drake, @juliekern.bsky.social, @andyradford.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71963 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social 🧵⬇️

One of the bumblebee colonies in my PhD project showing off their tags! The coloured circle tags are their identification tags, and the green square tags are their RFID tags to track their foraging efficiency in the field 🐝 #bumblebees #bumblebeeresearch

Bumblebees foraging on the Phacelia out at Fenswood 🐝🌸

An interview article about my new paper with my co-author Dr Liam O'Reilly is out now in New Scientist! Give it a read for the bees 🐝🌸

Electric signals from power lines discourage bees from landing on nearby flowers, and there is growing concern that this so-called “electric pollution” could be causing widespread disruption to insect behaviour.

Congratulations to @victoriamallinson.bsky.social for her first research article 📚🔬🌹

"Weak anthropogenic electric fields affect honeybee foraging" http://dlvr.it/TKvZJt @bristoluni.bsky.social @victoriamallinson.bsky.social‪, Fraser Woodburn, & Liam O’Reilly @cp-iscience.bsky.social

Excited to share that my first research article is now out in iScience: “Weak anthropogenic electric fields affect honeybee foraging” www.cell.com/iscience/ful... Huge thanks to my co-authors and supervisors for their support throughout! #pollinators #bees #ecology #electrosensory #beeresearch

One month later and all 16 flight cages are built and the Phacelia are coming along nicely. Only two weeks till the bumblebees arrive 🌸🐝 📷 Drone photos kindly taken by Tom Bennett from Bristol's Hot Robotics Facility

11 out of 16 flight cages built and first signs of my Phacelia tanacetifolia coming through! A very successful first week in the field 🤩🐝🌸

First flight cages built for my first PhD project. 6 down and 10 to go - watch this space! 🌸🐝 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @swbiodtp.bsky.social

First flight cage up for @victoriamallinson.bsky.social first PhD project. 16 more to go (and lots of planting) 🐝🌸🌻 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

In our latest paper, me and my colleagues found that bumblebee abundance decrease with more arable land in the landscape. Reduced pesticide use, higher crop diversity and promoting floral resources and alternative bumblebee habitats could help limit these negative effects www.mdpi.com/3083388

So many amazing student contributions at the #IUSSI24 meeting🔥🔥🔥 and in particular... ...huge congratulations to the winners of student prizes: 🏆Ellie Cooper Coombs (talk) 🏆Szymon Szymanski (talk) 🏆Charlotte Fryday (poster) 🏆 @victoriamallinson.bsky.social (poster) Thanks also to the judges!

Honoured to receive the Highly Commended Poster award at the IUSSI NW European Section Meeting 2024! My poster explored how anthropogenic electric fields affect honeybee foraging 🐝 Such a rewarding experience to share this work. Thank you to everyone at @iussi-nwes.bsky.social #IUSSI2024 #IUSSI24

Successful trip to #IUSSI2024 Tori, Ellie, and Szymon all winning prizes for their presentations 🐝🎉

Lots of @bristolbiosci.bsky.social representation at #IUSSI2024