Dr Victoria Hemming: Humans of BioSciences
Meet Dr Victoria Hemming, postdoctoral research fellow in the Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Victoria completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne at the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA) under the supervision of Professor Mark Burgman, Dr. Anca Hanea, Dr. Terry Walshe and Professor Fiona Fidler. Her thesis "Who to trust? Assessing and improving expert judgement in ecological domains", recently won the Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis due to the international recognition and impact of her research.
Who are you and what are you up to now?
I refer to myself as a decision and risk scientist. This means I tend to work on problems where we need to make predictions and inform difficult decisions under uncertainty, often where there is little data, and questions of science and values are at play.
I moved to Vancouver in July 2019 after I completed my PhD. I’m currently working as a postdoc in the Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, at the University of British Columbia, in beautiful Vancouver, Canada (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Territory). I’m helping to create and teach a course in conservation decision science and policy alongside Dr Tara Martin, and I’m involved in two research projects. The first is the development of a collaborative paper to summarise the expansive field of decision science as it applies to conservation. The second is to develop a framework to assess the additional benefits that society derives when we prioritise and invest in actions to recover species and ecosystems (for example, cultural benefits, carbon sequestration, food, and jobs).
What problem were you trying to solve with your PhD research?
My PhD focused on improving expert judgements in ecological domains. Specifically understanding whether there are methods that can help to derive better, more transparent quantitative and probabilistic judgements when data are scarce. Expert judgement is pervasive in scientific domains and the consequences of poor judgements can be dire. My research found the problem is not with experts per se, but rather with us, the researchers. We often don’t know how to identify experts, to use experts wisely, or to provide some basic steps that can help experts to provide their best judgements under considerable uncertainty. A key tip is to remember that expert judgement is used like other forms of empirical data. Therefore, we should apply the same methodological rigor and transparency to the collection of expert judgements as we would expect for the collection of other forms of data.
During my PhD, I built on work already occurring in this field. I provided an overview of methods that could be applied to obtain and improve expert judgements in data and resource poor contexts like ecology and conservation, I then tested these methods (one called the IDEA protocol, and the other the Classical Model) to see if they were effective and practical (you can find out more here).
Did you face any challenges during your PhD? How did you overcome them?
Yes, absolutely. I often felt out of depth. My topic entailed more mathematical theory than I had envisaged. I also found that I often had to consider, explain, defend and/or re-contextualise the relevance of my topic, which could be a bit despairing at times. I had computers crash on me during crucial moments, and many study ideas didn’t take off. My supervisor was offered a position in London, and at the time, I remember thinking that it was the end of the road for my PhD. Fortunately, he was fantastic at supervising from afar, and I was provided an opportunity to study abroad.
As well as academic challenges, there were also personal challenges, a friend passed away, a long-term relationship ended, family members and friends had some very significant events happen to them, and everyone seemed to be moving ahead with life, while I felt I had taken a big step backwards. I think we’re often told to prepare for the academic setbacks, but over three or more years a lot can happen that affects us personally.
I had different strategies for overcoming the sets of challenges encountered. Sometimes the best solution was to take the day off and find a friend who had no idea and/or no interest in what I was working on and do something outside of work. Sometimes, it was chipping away a little each day (even if the words didn’t flow and the ideas didn’t connect). At other times it was drawing on my family, friends and mentors for their ideas and support.
What do you enjoy doing outside of science?
I love anything that immerses me in nature. One of the wonderful things about living in Vancouver is the vast array of outdoor activities at my doorstep. In summer, I’m able to go hiking in the mountains, and swimming in the lakes. In winter, we can go skiing after work or snow shoeing. In autumn (or the fall), it’s often wet, but the bursts of colours from the deciduous trees brighten the streets, then Salmon return to spawn in the streams, and the eagles descend to feed. Every day at dusk a large stream of crows fills the sky and returns home from the coast. It’s a pretty special place and I feel very lucky to be here.
Do you have any new hobbies you’ve picked up during lockdown?
During lockdown, I began to pick up some old hobbies - reading for pleasure, playing board games, Pilates, running, connecting with friends over zoom, and cooking (some of these I’ve continued, others were short lived). I also bought a second-hand bike just before lockdown- this allowed me to discover some local gems and home comforts in my neighbourhood, like good coffee.
Find out more
Dr Victoria Hemming: Twitter @v_hemming
Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis
Martin Conservation Decisions Lab
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