I joined the OU in October 2012 after doing my PhD at Cambridge and spending most of my research career in the tropics. I think the OU is a fantastic idea - that anyone can study from anywhere and whether or not they finished their schooling. I remember my Mum doing OU courses when I was little and up until recently I had the LPs from her music course.
I didn’t really know much about research at the OU before I came here. I knew it had a reputation for research in planetary sciences and I came to know a bit about ecological research at the OU as I had bumped into Jonathan Silvertown, who is a Professor of Ecology here, at conferences.
I feel I’ve achieved a lot since I arrived at the OU, particularly as I haven’t been here long. I’m building my own Ecosystems Ecology research team within the OU’s Ecosystems and Biodiversity group. I now have research staff, I’ve been recruiting students, we’ve set up a new lab and we’re starting a big five-year project looking at temperate and tropical forests under climate change.
'When asked how my research can change the world, my answer is that I can change the world a little at a time by looking at the effects of climate change on ecosystem function.' - Dr Emma Sayer, Head of the OU's Ecosystems Ecology research team
I’m also excited to be working on a project funded by the British Ecological Society to do ecology at music festivals during summer 2013. We have a wildflower-meadow-themed stall with lots of different activities to show people that ecology can be fascinating and fun, and to encourage them to think about how ecosystems work.
I imagine ecological research as a massive jigsaw puzzle and like a jigsaw; the different parts of ecosystems are all connected so if you take one bit away, it can collapse. The fascinating fact for me is we never quite finish the puzzle
