Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) has welcomed a new lecturer in ecology, who takes on their first new job outside of the United States.

Dr Marta Shocket did their PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at Indiana University, followed by two post-doctorates - one at Stanford University and one at UCLA.

Prior to their PhD, they took a year out of education to work at Dallas Zoo, taking care of antelope.

More recently they spent time working as an affiliated researcher at the University of Florida while they were looking for a permanent position.

Marta’s main research area is climate and disease ecology.

In the past they worked on vector-borne diseases and disease in freshwater lakes, but now they're switching their focus to fungal pathogens of insects when they start their own lab.

Marta said: “Lancaster University has people who specialise in all of my areas.

“There's some amazing academics in LEC working on insect ecology and climate science, the UKCEH Lake Ecosystems unit is based here, and there’s people working on sandflies and Leishmania parasites in Biomedical and Life Sciences.

“So, I’m really excited to get to know people, share ideas, and build collaborations with people across Lancaster University.”

Marta said their main teaching passion is statistics and programming in R, and in the long-term aims to get involved in modules on those topics.

In the shorter term, the department needed someone to teach the aquatic ecology module.

“I’m very excited to talk about why lake ecosystems are so much fun to study this winter,” they added.

In their spare time, Marta reads sci-fi books and bakes, and plans to get back into rowing now that they live in Lancaster.

Marta added: “Everyone has been really friendly and welcoming so far to help me get situated, especially since I’m new to the UK and the British academic system.

“Although the core of the job is very similar, a lot of the vocabulary and specific mechanics of how universities run things are quite different.

“I really like that LEC is so interdisciplinary - I'm excited to learn more about other fields through the departmental seminars and gain a broader perspective.”