Adjusting to Research & Teaching Under Lockdown: The Ants Go Marching On for Clint Penick Artwork

Research 2030

Connect to insights and perspectives from those leading change across the globe. When we launched the Research 2030 series early in 2020, our goal was to share voices and perspectives from an ever-changing global research community. Little did we know how quickly change would come with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic or the new challenges research and academic communities would be asked to tackle, from global collaboration to fight a virus to individual battles of living under lockdown. As we push forward into this new era, the need to share and connect with each other grows. Although this podcast is no substitute for a serendipitous meeting in a conference corridor, we hope it offers a chance to connect to insights and perspectives from those leading change across the globe. Join us on Research 2030, as we explore the importance of societal impact and the role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals on research, examine the impact of university rankings, delve into the growing potential of university-industry collaboration, and navigate a changing research culture. Sign up to Research 2030 through or your favorite podcast provider and so you will know whenever a new episode is released.

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Research 2030

Adjusting to Research & Teaching Under Lockdown: The Ants Go Marching On for Clint Penick

May 13, 2020 • Season 1 • Episode 6

Today we find ourselves standing in a major point in history. Research life is not what it looked like just a few short months ago. We are sitting down, virtually, with various members of the research community to hear about their research life in the here and now, and the potential impact they see on the future. These are the stories of science, research and the research landscape in unprecedented times.

In this episode Giacomo Mancini welcomes Clint Penick to the show. Clint is an Ecologist and Faculty member of Kennesaw State University in Georgia, USA. The work at his lab, the Penick lab, focuses on the evolution and ecological success of social insects (ants, bees, wasps, and termites). Clint shares how he has adjusted to life under lockdown, from transitioning courses online, to adjusting field courses, and to the impact the pandemic has on his field work.

Show Notes:

Dr. Clint Penick is an Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University, where his research focuses on the evolution and ecological success of social insects. Current projects in his lab focus on how ants use antimicrobials to fight disease, how social insects respond to climate change, and how urban ants exploit human foods on the sidewalks of New York City. In addition to research on social insects, Dr. Penick has collaborated with engineers and designers on projects related to bio-inspired design through funding from Google and NASA.

You can learn more about Penick’s lab and research at www.penicklab.com

Join Penick in baking sourdough bread while contributing to research. Find out more here: http://robdunnlab.com/projects/wildsourdough/

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