Maia led the publication of a letter in Science with colleagues from the Smith Fellowship entitled US military expansion and deep-sea mining pose environmental risks to Guam

Sara's work on urban ecology was featured on Nine to Noon on Radio NZ and then gave a talk as part of Raising the Bar Christchurch 2026. It was a packed crowd at C1 Espresso with many of the lab coming out. 

Sara attended the North American Congress for Conservation and and Restoration in Wisconsin to talk about her service-learning and course-based undergraduate research Weaving together teaching, research, and community engagement. She also spoke on a panel of current and former Smith Fellows called From Research to Action: How Conservation Science Informs (and Doesn't Inform) Practice 

Jessie, Emily, Mathilde, and Anisiia all presented at the Kea Conservation Summit in Kaikoura. Jessie and Emily presented their work on understanding target and non-target interactions with new sausage-based lures, while Mathilde and Anisiia presented on their work on Kea cognitive ability under probability tests. 

Some of the REC lab represented #WomeninSTEM at the 2026 Ōtautahi Christchurch events recognizing the UN's International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Maia was a speaker on a panel highlighting women scientists; and then Sara, MB, Izzy, Ava, Lily, and Mathilde spent the day at Tūranga with an interactive display we called 'Eco-Detectives'. It was a LOT of fun!

Meghan, MB, and Ananya presented their work at the Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS) Conference in Queenstown, December 2025 ! 

REC lab members Izzy Busby (best PhD talk) and Lily Ashenden (best MSc talk, ecology) won student awards at the 2025 Annual Biology Conference at the University of Canterbury! All the REC lab members gave great talks!

Ava presented their work at the 5th Combined Australian and New Zealand Entomological Societies Conference in Canberra, Australia in December 2025. She was runner up for the Bruce Given award for the best NZ student presentation!