Danny Sheath, who has just submitted his Ph.D. thesis for examination, attended the 10th International Conference on Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies (http://isoecol.com/2016/) in Tokyo last week. Held every two years, this conference attracts an international audience of ecologists who use stable isotope analysis in their research. Danny presented an oral paper on a key aspect of his doctoral research that investigated how parasites alter aspects of the behaviour and diet of their hosts. By comparing the ‘trophic niches’ of infected and uninfected hosts, he quantified the consequences of parasites for food web structure.
He clearly made it sound much more interesting than me though as he won the student prize for the best presentation against some stiff competition in his first presentation at a major international conference! On his return, he then received some further good news when some of his research was accepted for publication in the journal Parasitology. Well done Danny!!