June 2, 2014, by Deepa Kumari Veerasingam
Coffee-and-Cake Session: Life as a Researcher
The Graduate School held its monthly Coffee-and-Cake session on 30 May 2014.
The session featured the “Life as a Researcher” of Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, an Associate Professor at the Lab of Tropical Conservation Ecology, School of Geography, UNMC. A tropical ecologist, Dr Campos-Arceiz, whose area of research focuses mainly on the ecologist role of large herbivores as agents of seed dispersal and the management of human-wildlife conflicts, is interested in the ecology and conservation of Asian megafauna and their habitats especially elephants, rhinos and tapirs. His passion and understanding of these large animals is evident through his research projects particularly the Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME), a 5-year research project where he is the Principal Investigator working towards an evidence-based conservation of Malaysian elephants.
Recognising his exceptional work in the biodiversity and tropical ecology, Dr Campos-Arceiz was presented with the Vice Chancellor’s Achievement Award in 2013 by the University of Nottingham. He was also the recipient of the UNMC Staff Oscar for Best Masters and PhD Supervisor this year.
As a researcher, Dr Campos-Arceiz has a busy schedule. For the past decade, he has little or no time for activities outside the academia. Time, is not his best ally. Despite his busy schedule, he sat down with us for an exclusive interview session on 12 May 2014 which was video-recorded. The video was featured during the Coffee-and-Cake session. It will be uploaded on our Facebook page in due course.
In the interview session, Dr Campos-Arceiz talked about his research and why did he want to become a researcher. In his capacity as a experienced researcher, he also gave some advice to prospective researchers on the competencies needed to become a researcher. As of now, Dr Campos-Arceiz hopes that MEME will be successful as it is his biggest undertaking so far. He has high hopes that the project will produce valuable results. Other than that, he hopes to witness a change in the people’s value system towards the concept of ‘environmental sustainability’.
During the Coffee-and-Cake session, one of our PhD students, Nagulendran (better known as Nagu), was invited to share his thoughts and experience on having Dr Campos-Arceiz as his supervisor.
Nagu talked about the reasons why he chose UNMC to pursue his postgraduate studies and Dr Campos-Arceiz as his supervisor.
Nagu also mentioned the resemblance of Dr Campos-Arceiz and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Do you agree?
Dr Campos-Arceiz treated the audience to a riveting and interactive talk on his life as a researcher. He provided an insight look into the typical life and profile of a researcher in both professional and personal perspectives. He also shared his know-hows in overcoming the challenges and difficulties in becoming a researcher.
The session was very beneficial to postgraduate students who want to become a researcher after the completion of their studies. Most importantly, the session provided them with motivation, method and meaning towards becoming a researcher.
We would like to express our heartiest gratitude to Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, who was kind enough to spare some of his precious time to do both the interview and the Coffee-and-Cake sessions.
-
Post a comment
