Goodbye to Katrina

16 May 2019

On behalf of all the members of the extended evolutionary synthesis research program, we would like to say a fond goodbye and huge vote of thanks to Katrina Falkenberg, who left on May 10 2019 to pursue a science communications career in Melbourne, Australia.

Katrina was employed as the media and communications officer for the EES research grant from its inception in late 2016. With her professionalism and friendly charm, Katrina impressed everybody associated with the project, and countless others outside it. It was Katrina who set up the EES website, liaising with Design Science to produce what has become a fantastic resource for the evolutionary biology community. Katrina built up a following for @EES_update on twitter from nothing to several thousands of followers. She wrote or edited nearly 70 high-quality popular science articles about evolution, making sure that the science was accurately portrayed, that technicalities had been removed or explained, and that the piece was beautifully illustrated. Katrina was the principal organizer of the Evolution Evolving conference, held in Cambridge, UK April 1-4, which was universally regarded as a huge success, and was the best-organized meeting that many of us have ever attended. Katrina also regularly participated at workshops and conferences relevant to the EES and brought the event to those unable to attend through her live tweeting and blogs.

Through all these efforts, and much more, Katrina became a vital social hub to our community, much loved for her painstaking attention to detail, her commitment to accurately communicating science, and her irrepressible positivity. She will be much missed. However, our loss is Melbourne’s gain, and we wish Katrina well in the next chapter of, what we are confident will be, an illustrious career Down Under.

Kevin Laland & Tobias Uller