Science without Borders

Aline Coelho, Cassia Broca, Giordana Flor, Edvania Rocha and Matheus Passos; Science Without Border sStudents

Science without Borders is a Brazilian Government scholarship programme which aims to send 101,000 Brazilian students on undergraduate sandwich courses, PhD sandwich courses and full PhDs to study in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and creative industries at top universities worldwide.

The UK is well-known for its high level of education and some of the best universities in the world are located here. This alone is enough to be convinced about which country we wanted to choose to study in. Furthermore, as a unique opportunity to experience living abroad, studying in the UK allowed us to live amongst a society of great cultural diversity we had never seen, which has enriched our perception of the world.

We have chosen the University of Northampton as it has been recognised as a Centre of Excellence for waste management education and research. Indeed all the team of lecturers are well prepared and experienced, both in academic and industrial terms, giving us confidence that the knowledge learnt here will be fully applied to our professional future.

Beside this, the University has a good support structure, and special attention is given to international students. If we could bring back to Brazil some of them, we would say that the Tutorial Scheme, Academic Librarian Support and CfAP (Centre for Achievement and Performance) are very welcome. The Student Union (SU) provide very well for students’ needs. We hang out at SU events and always have a good time. We also highlight the support that we received from the university Welcome Team. It was essential when we first arrived here. We were able to do many activities such as movie nights, sports days and day trips. 

The town of Northampton itself is very pleasant to live in and well located. Thus we have had the opportunity to travel to many cities nearby such as London, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Oxford. There are so many beautiful parks, like the Racecourse Park in front of Avenue Campus; we wonder how it will look covered in white, when the snow comes. By the way it will be our first time seeing snow; and we are looking forward to it! 

Finally, it has been a wonderful experience to study and live in Northampton. We have met so many nice people. Moreover, we acquired personal and professional knowledge that we will bring to all our lives. 

Professor of Biodiversity visits Brazil for teaching, National Botanical Congress and research field work

Jeff Ollerton, Professor of Biodiversity within the Department, spent the last two weeks of November 2013 the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil undertaking field work on the ecology of plants and their pollinators.​

The field work is the final stage of Professor Ollerton's month long visit to Brazil, a trip which has seen him travel over 2,500km, speak at the National Botanical Congress, and present lectures at institutions throughout the country. Professor Ollerton has also taught a one-week long pollination biology course to a group of postgrads and professors at the University of Campinas, which included the students undertaking field work on their own campus.

In the field, Professor Ollerton collected data on the proportion of animal versus wind pollinated plants across different Brazilian plant communities.  His data collection will compare plants in dry tropical vegetation (in the Serra do Cipó National Park), to those growing in the mountain ranges of Serro do Mar in the South East of the country. The plant species are given scores based on the type of flowers, pollen release and flower visitors that they have. The research undertaken so far fits with predictions made in Professor Ollerton's 2011 study, published in the journal Oikos, suggesting that 90 per cent of plants within tropical communities are pollinated by animals, compared to 70-80 per cent on average in the temperate zone.

The trip is part of an ongoing collaboration with PhD student André Rodrigo Rech and his Brazilian supervisor Professor Marlies Sazima as part of the "Science Without Borders" scheme.  Staff and students were able keep up to date with Professor Ollerton's adventures as he blogged each week from Brazil, beginning here:  http://jeffollerton.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/brazil-diary-1/