The Early Career Committee help develop and run ACE ECN events. Together, we guide our activities to be most useful to early career researchers. In the spirit of career development, these committee roles are designed to be a great opportunity to gain transferable management and planning skills. ACE research is centred around 4 themes:Earth Life Ecosystem Society Early Career Network committee Layout section Co-Lead - Emily Simmonds I am a quantitative ecologist with an interest in understanding how biological systems are influenced by their environment. My work looks at forecasting how individuals and populations respond to weather and climatic changes. My approach focuses on methodological innovation and refinement, alongside ecological insight. I have a particular interest in improving how we quantify and communicate uncertainty.Email me Co-Lead - Nicky Lustenhouwer I have a broad interest in evolutionary ecology and global change, including range expansion, trait-based ecology, and climate change responses. My main research focus is on spreading populations: native species tracking climate change and exotic species invading a new range. I enjoy working with wild populations of plants and damselflies, using a combination of fieldwork, experiments, modelling, and genomics.Email me Events Officer - Nathan Medd I am an entomologist-cum-geneticist now working with Edinburgh Genomics to provide bioinformatics training and the Rambaut Lab at the University of Edinburgh working on SARS-cov2 data analysis. Events Officer - Zishan (Sannie) Fu I am working on phloem evolution with a focus on ferns and gymnosperms. Mentoring Officer - Megan Thompson I am an Evolutionary Ecologist mainly working on urban systems. My research uses long-term datasets, meta-analyses, and experimental approaches to evaluate how urbanisation is affecting phenotypic change in wild (mainly bird) populations. I have benefited from working with outstanding mentors along my journey and I hope to increase mentoring opportunities for ECRs in ACE by serving as a mentorship officer on the committee. Email me Mentoring Officer - Saimun Habib I'm a research Data Scientist with interests in computer vision, medical imaging, algorithmic fairness, and more. I have experience with Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Data Science, R, Python, Unsupervised/Supervised Learning, Causal Inference, and Topic Modeling. I am currently working on my PhD in Informatics at University of Edinburgh. Public Engagement Officer - Niamh Gurrin I’m an environmental chemist at the University of Edinburgh. My research interests include water quality, dissolved organic matter and the impact of peatland restoration on streams. I use analytical techniques including TOC, NMR and MS. To analyse data, I code in python, bash and R. I am also a public engagement scholar with the School of Chemistry. I love outreach and engagement and hope to help make these activities easier for other researchers.Email me Career Paths Officer - Diego Sanchez Ganfornina I’m a botanist and educationalist currently undertaking a PhD studying the origin and evolution of spiral patterns in plants. I’m ever-curious, always wondering about the myriad ways in which our planet and all living beings on it have changed over time, and am passionate about spreading the word about evolutionary research. Since my career path has been exploratory in both education and science, careers and how people arrive at a given position is something I’m both used to discussing with peers as well as curious about – therefore I aim to help in the ACE ECN by providing events and spaces in which to hold discussions which hopefully help others find their way through the complexities of career pathways.Email me Industry Officer - Cammy Beyts I am a behavioural ecologist at The University of Edinburgh and my research interests lie in understanding individual variation in animal behavior. My research is driven by a curiosity to explore how an individual's environment and past experiences shape behavioural variability—whether it's within themselves, among peers, or at a broader group level. Professional Development Officer - Jobran Chebib Hi, I'm Jobran. I'm an evolutionary geneticist originally from Calgary, Canada and now a Lecturer in Genetics Education. My research centres on the genetic architecture of traits affecting and affected by eco-evolutionary dynamics. This includes the nature of spontaneous mutation — its rate, spectrum, and fitness consequences — studied through long-read sequencing and mutation accumulation experiments in mice and Chlamydomonas, alongside population genetics simulations. I'm equally interested in how pleiotropy, linkage and mutational correlation shape genetic architecture and quantitative trait evolution, and I employ both explicit-genetic-architecture forward-in-time simulations and agent-based modelling. Partner officer - Claire Moulton-Brown I am a molecular microbial ecologist interested in how microbial communities respond to land-use and environmental change. My research interrogates plant-soil-microbe interactions to understand how belowground microbial communities influence ecosystem processes, particularly in agricultural and woodland systems. As Partnerships Officer for the ACE Early Career Network, I aim to help build connections and collaborations between early-career researchers and organisations across the environmental sector. This article was published on Thursday 26 June 2025
