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 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 - Amelia Penny I’m interested in the dynamics of environmental and ecological change, and in how temporal scale influences our understanding of those changes. My work investigates how biodiversity change progresses, at timescales ranging from decades to millions of years, and in a wide range of organisms - from marine invertebrates to terrestrial plants. I'm interested in how long-term perspectives can help to inform the ways we value and protect biodiversity for the future, particularly under long-term impacts.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 am investigating the impact of peatland restoration on catchment scale biogeochemistry. Career Paths Officer - Diego Sanchez Ganfornina I am a recent MSc alumni at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. My research interests include taxonomy, biogeography, evolutionary biology and molecular biology. I am currently investigating four pleurocarp moss species in order to gain insight in their evolution, with the help of molecular techniques in my project "Addressing unresolved taxonomic and phylogenetic questions in Australasian dendroid mosses". 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. This article was published on 2025-06-26
