Patrick Kennedy

Happy 100th birthday to David Attenborough! 🐋 🦀 🐆 At the launch of @bristolbiosci.bsky.social, I fed mealworm brownies to him and the Lord Mayor (whilst randomly wearing a beekeeping suit). Here's him raving about my insect cooking on the radio 😆 So I hope he celebrates properly - mealworm cake?

We're hiring a 3-year postdoc at the University of Bristol to improve our ability to predict vegetation responses to fire in a changing world 🌍🔥🌱. Details: mdekauwe.github.io/join_us Please share, thank you.

Just refreshed my menu of essay themes for final-year Bristol biology @bristolbiosci.bsky.social students. Very much looking forward to seeing where they go with it.

I've to put down some of my down to free up head space, feel free to read! "We must stop giving succour to those who do not care about evidence or data, and simply want to live in a world where they can grind their latest axe in a never ending culture war." nadinebh.substack.com/p/less-than-...

Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc position on vision in trilobites! Come and explore the exciting world of reconstructing vision in the fossil record, using some of the most iconic extinct animals to grace our oceans! Please reach out + RT! (*Deadline in fact 23.59 BST on the 26th August!*)

The Lord's Prayer sounds much better in Swahili than it did in sombre chants back at my English Catholic school... 🤣 www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEx...

The result of 10+ years of fieldwork & analysis of 1000s of data points is out now in @natecoevo.nature.com... and on the cover! Mongoose pre-emptive behaviour & intergroup conflict Congratulations @josharbon.bsky.social @juliekern.bsky.social #AmyMorris-Drake doi.org/10.1038/s415...

🐝 Are you advertising a job or PhD in social insect biology? Get the word out by adding it to the PhDs/jobs noticeboard on the main IUSSI website! www.socialinsects.org/positions @iussi-nwes.bsky.social @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nas.bsky.social #IUSSI2026 #IUSSI

Currently taking Swahili lessons, but on the lookout for a more perfect word than “mihang’o” from Kikuyu, which a friend defines as “being busy in a useless way” 🤣

@crab-exeter.bsky.social are a fantastic group of researchers, and a real beacon of excellence for Exeter. What a huge and deeply sad act of self sabotage this would be. Please consider signing their open letter👇🏻

Very cool new pre-print from @rmash.bsky.social and team “…parental care shapes the storage, expression and release of genetic variation…” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“The very concept of an artificially generated video of wildlife is profane, operating on a level of self-interest that I struggle to comprehend. These videos make me fear the future”

New paper in @pnas.org - using playback experiments we provide further evidence that bottlenose dolphins can use individual identity signals + social memory to guide decision-making. Female dolphins use individual vocal labels to track coercive males | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Deeply shocked not to see wasps at the top

There’s basically no public debate in the UK about how we have massively slashed aid, but it is really terrible. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

My lab is recruiting a #postdoc! Please share! See ad below. If interested please reach out to me via email. Deadline to apply is Sept. 1st, 2026. #wasplove

🚨Job claxon🚨 4-year #Postdoc available in our lab in @camzoology.bsky.social developing molecular and anatomical approaches to mapping evolutionary changes in the brain, using #Heliconiini butterflies. Come join us, we are nice. 🧪 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

For #DavidAttenborough’s 100th birthday, new research on the Panamanian wasp stars of his series #LifeInTheUndergrowth! Co-wasped with: @andyradford.bsky.social, Chris Wyatt, Emily Bell, Daisy Taylor @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Seeking a motivated postdoc (2+3 yrs) to study links between cognition, behavior, and fitness in lemurs at our long-term field site in Kirindy Forest, Madagascar. Join an interdisciplinary team working on wild populations. @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Apply here: www.dpz.eu

🥇Poster prize awarded to #AylaWebb at @asab.org #ASABSpring2026 🐝Reproductive hierarchies & queen succession in paper #wasps 🌟CONGRATULATIONS Ayla 🎉 @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social #ProudSupervisors @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @asab-meetings.bsky.social #fieldwork #ECR #PhD #experiments #evolution

🔊 Calling UK early career researches in astro, particle & nuclear physics. Please sign this open response to the proposed cuts at STFC ⚛️🧪🔭 "Protecting the UK's reputation as a science superpower requires not only investment, but continuity, confidence, and people" ✍️ ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

🆕 The threat of large-scale deforestation is well known, but this new study reveals a surprising risk factor: small clearings of tropical forest account for more than half of net carbon losses across the Tropics. 📷 These satellite images show how deforestation has expanded in Peru’s Loreto region.

Four days left to apply for two postdocs in social evolution with me and @dustinrubenstein.com Based at the University of Bristol (UK), conducting fieldwork with wasps in Cameroon, Kenya, and South Africa.

🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching... 6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Social monitoring & manipulation #meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Honoured & humbled to receive a #Nature #Award for #Mentoring in #Science yesterday. ☺️ Testament to the wonderful #ECRs I've been privileged to work with. THANK YOU to all who nominated me. 🙏 #proud #support @natureportfolio.nature.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

Sad to be missing the #ASABWinter2025 @asab-meetings.bsky.social conference this week, but two postdocs that may interest ASAB members:

blown away by this, given the names of previous winners - recent and not so recent - hugely grateful to @zslofficial.bsky.social, and all the many students, postgrads, postdocs and collaborators who have helped make the last 14 years so fun and exciting Will go back to avoiding cameras now… 🫣

Please repost or forward to those who may be interested! @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @asab.org @iussi-nwes.bsky.social @iussi-nas.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org