Seirian Sumner

Sumner was educated at Ysgol Gyfun. Aberaeron, Wales {{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/seirian-sumner-45aa8a62?trk=chatin_wnc_redirect_pubprofile&ctx=cnpartner |access-date= 4 May 2021 |publisher=Linkedin |title=Serian Sumner}} and then at University College London where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and in 1999 was awarded a PhD on Conflicts over reproduction in facultatively eusocial hover wasps'.{{cite thesis |last=Sumner |first=Seirian-Rose Maria |url=https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391922 |title=PhD Thesis |publisher=British Library |website=ethos.bl.uk |year=1999 |accessdate=1 August 2019 |type=Ph.D }} Her postdoctoral work was with Jacobus Boomsma at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark; she then held fellowships at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and at the Institute of Zoology, London.{{cite web |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/scientist-to-watch/seirian-sumner-wasp-whisperer-42132 |title=The Scientist Article |website=www.the-scientist.com |date=2011-08-01 |accessdate=1 August 2019}} Sumner moved to the University of Bristol as a Senior Lecturer in 2012 and then moved to University College London as a Reader in Behavioural Ecology in 2016 and Professor in 2020.{{cite web |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/people/dr-seirian-sumner |title=Academic Homepage |last=Sumner |first=Serian |website=Division of Biosciences |date=May 2019 |publisher=University College London |accessdate=1 August 2019}}

Sumner's research looks at the evolution of insect social behaviour and she has studied insect species along a continuum of sociality. She showed that insects can have simple sociality based on behaviour rather than physical characteristic of a caste,{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Long live the wasp: adult longevity in captive colonies of the eusocial paper wasp Polistes canadensis (L.). |journal=PeerJ |volume=3:e848 |date=2015 |pages=e848 |doi=10.7717/peerj.848 |pmid=25825677 |pmc=4375972 |doi-access=free }} and that in these simple societies individuals can change caste from worker to queen, which is not possible in complex insect societies such as honeybees.{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Molecular signatures of plastic phenotypes in two eusocial insect species with simple societies |journal=PNAS |volume=Early Edition |date=2015 |issue=45 |pages=13970–13975 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1515937112 |pmid=26483466 |pmc=4653166 |bibcode=2015PNAS..11213970P |doi-access=free }} Sumner made the first use of RFID tags in field research, finding that the movement of paper wasp queens away from their home nests was much higher than expected{{cite journal |last1=Sumner |first1=Seirian |title=Radio-Tagging Technology Reveals Extreme Nest-Drifting Behavior in a Eusocial Insect |journal=Current Biology |volume=17 |pages=140–145 |date=2007 |issue=2 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2006.11.064 |pmid=17240339 |s2cid=15738463 |doi-access=free }} On more complex insect societies, Sumner did some of the first research on the genetic relatedness of bumblebee colonies, showing that sister queens emerging from the same colony travel far apart from each other to establish their new colonies.{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Fine‐scale spatial genetic structure of common and declining bumble bees across an agricultural landscape |journal=Molecular Ecology |volume=23 |issue=14 |date=2014 |pages=3384–3395 |doi=10.1111/mec.12823 |pmid=24980963 |pmc=4142012}} Sumner has looked at the effect of social insect populations on their environments such as the impact of Argentine ants on seed dispersal.{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Invasive ants take and squander native seeds: implications for native plant communities |journal=Biological Invasions |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=451–466 |date=2014 |doi=10.1111/mec.12823 |pmid=24980963 |pmc=4142012}} She has worked on ants, looking at a parasitic ant species which evolved from and parasitises on a leaf-cutter species in Panama, she found that queens of the parasite species only mate with a single male, compared to the host leaf-cutter queens which mate with multiple males.{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Ant parasite queens revert to mating singlys |journal=Nature |volume=428 |pages=35–366 |date=2004 |issue=6978 |doi=10.1038/428035a |pmid=14999273 |bibcode=2004Natur.428...35S |s2cid=30986614 }}

She is an advocate of the ecosystem services of social wasps{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48302414 |title=BBC News article |website=www.bbc.co.uk |date=20 May 2019 |accessdate=1 August 2019}} saying that wasps are useful, indeed essential,{{cite web |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2016-06-10/experts-create-a-buzz-as-they-reveal-why-we-should-love-wasps/ |title=ITV News article |website=www.itv.com |date=10 June 2016 |accessdate=13 August 2019}} that social wasps can be predators that can help control populations of pest insects,{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/in-defence-of-wasps-why-squashing-them-comes-with-a-sting-in-the-tale-60729 |title=The Conversation article |website=theconversation.com |date=12 July 2016 |accessdate=13 August 2019}} and that wasps matter.{{cite web |last=Sumner |first=Serian |title=Why I Matter |url=https://newint.org/features/2020/12/07/wasp-biodiversity-why-i-matter |website=newint.org |date=17 February 2021 |publisher=New Internationalist |access-date=11 March 2021}} Sumner's lab are researching how social wasps might communicate within their colony about where resources are, perhaps like honey bees do the waggle dance.{{Cite web |url=http://uclporticomagazine.co.uk/magazines/portico-issue6/idea-must-die/ |title=This idea must die |website=Portico |access-date=10 December 2019}} In 2019 she published a Proceedings of the Royal Society B article on showing how social paper wasps can be successful predators of two economically important pests the sugarcane borer and the fall armyworm.{{Cite journal |last1=Southon |first1=Robin J. |last2=Fernandes |first2=Odair A. |last3=Nascimento |first3=Fabio S. |last4=Sumner |first4=Seirian |date=2019-11-06 |title=Social wasps are effective biocontrol agents of key lepidopteran crop pests |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=286 |issue=1914 |pages=20191676 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2019.1676 |pmid=31690237 |pmc=6842862 |doi-access=free}} Her research on public attitudes to bees and wasps showed that the benefits of bees are widely understood but those of wasps are not, which is also reflected in the amount of scientific research into the two groups, with wasps being underresearched compared to bees.{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Why we love bees and hate wasps |journal=Ecological Entomology |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=836–845 |date=2018 |doi=10.1111/een.12676 |doi-access=free |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10057359/1/Sumner_et_al-2018-Ecological_Entomology.pdf }} Sumner cofounded the citizen science initiative The Big Wasp Survey in 2017 with Professor Adam Hart to raise awareness of the role and diversity of social wasp species in the UK{{cite web |url=http://www.bigwaspsurvey.org/#theTeam |title=Big Wasp Survey |website=www.bigwaspsurvey.org |accessdate=1 August 2019}} and to compare the accuracy of citizen science data with long-term biological recording data.{{cite journal |last1=Sumner |first1=Seirian |title=Mapping species distributions in 2 weeks using citizen science |journal=Insect Conservation and Diversity |volume=online early view |date=2019 |issue=5 |pages=382–388 |doi=10.1111/icad.12345 |s2cid=109920397 |url=http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/6620/1/6620%20Hart%20et%20al%20%282019%29%20Mapping%20species%20distributions%20in%20two%20weeks%20using%20citizen%20science.pdf }}

With Dr Nathalie Pettorelli of the Zoological Society of London, Sumner cofounded Soapbox Science in 2011, a platform that promotes women working in science.{{cite web |url=http://soapboxscience.org/local-organisers/soapbox-science-hq/ |title=Soapbox Science |website=soapboxscience.org |date=8 July 2019 |accessdate=1 August 2019}} Sumner has taken part in several Pint of Science events,{{cite web |url=https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/the-really-wild-show |title=The really wild show |website=Pint of Science |access-date=10 December 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/unwanted-visitors |title=Unwanted Visitors |website=Pint of Science |access-date=10 December 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/welcome-to-insect-night |title=Welcome to Insect night! |website=Pint of Science |access-date=10 December 2019}} and has spoken at the Cheltenham Science Festival in 2016.{{cite web |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2016-06-10/experts-create-a-buzz-as-they-reveal-why-we-should-love-wasps/ |title=Experts create a buzz as they reveal why we should love wasps |website=ITV News |date=10 June 2016 |access-date=10 December 2019}} With the FoAM Kernow lab in Falmouth, Sumner helped create an online game #wasplove{{cite web |url=http://wasplove.com/ |title=The #wasplove game |website=wasplove.com |access-date=2020-01-21}} for people to create their own wasp societies.{{Cite web |url=https://fo.am/activities/wasplove/ |title=The #wasplove game |website=FoAM |access-date=2020-01-21}} Sumner was an invited speaker at the EntoSci event in 2020 talking about her career to 14 to 18 year olds.{{cite web |url=https://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/events/293/entosci20 |title=Events - EntoSci20 |website=Harper Adams University |access-date=21 January 2020}} In 2022, Sumner gave an invited talk at New Scientist Live in London.{{Cite web |title=Seirian Sumner |url=https://live.newscientist.com/speakers/seirian-sumner |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=New Scientist Live 2022 |language=en-GB}}

She has written a popular science book titled Endless Forms on wasps, published by William Collins in 2022.{{cite book |last=Sumner |first=Seirian |title=Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps |date=26 May 2022 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-839449-3 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5xpDEAAAQBAJ |access-date=11 February 2022}} The Observer commented that the book "wearily" catalogues the "anti-wasp media" from Aristotle and Shakespeare to modern times, and that Sumner argues it is time to drop the "lazy tropes" associated with the wasp. Instead, she sets out the case for appreciating wasps, in science, society, and culture.{{cite news |last=Coldwell |first=Will |title=Why we should all love wasps |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/22/revenge-of-the-wasp-woman-dr-seirian-sumner-loves-wasps-and-advocates-for-them |access-date=24 June 2022 |work=The Observer |date=22 May 2022}}

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• [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/people/dr-seirian-sumner University College London profile]
• [http://www.sumnerlab.co.uk/ Sumner Research Lab website]

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Category:Living people

Category:British ecologists

Category:British entomologists

Category:Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society

Category:British women entomologists

Category:British women ecologists

Category:Alumni of University College London

Category:Animal cognition writers

Category:University of Copenhagen alumni

Category:Academics of the University of Bristol

Category:Academics of University College London

Category:21st-century British scientists

Category:21st-century British women scientists

Category:1974 births