Rowan Kuminski

@rowankuminski.bsky.social

They/them - PhD student - interdisciplinary scientist studying: predation on seabirds, language barriers in ecology, effects of linguistic imperialism on ecological engagement, and LGBTQIA+ experiences in ornithology 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Los datos de la @aemet.es no dejan lugar a dudas: esto no es solo "mal tiempo", es la crisis climática. La inacción nos cuesta vidas y biodiversidad. Hay que poner fin a los combustibles fósiles y exigir a los gobiernos medidas drásticas de mitigación y adaptación urgentes.

AEMET@aemet.es · 11h ago

🧵 El verano de 2026 por ahora (junio-julio) es el más cálido de la serie histórica en España, que arranca en 1961. ➡️ Con una temperatura media de 24,5 ºC, supera en 0,7 ºC a los bimestres junio-julio más cálidos, los de 2022 y 2025. Es 2,9 ºC más cálido que el promedio 1991-2020.

Gráfico con la temperatura media en España peninsular para el bimestre junio-julio

Are you an artist with experience with scientific illustration or translating scientific concepts into art? I would love to ask you some questions and/or promote you for an upcoming blog post on how scientists can work more with artists in their research 🎨

Getting cited is great, but today in a shared folder for planning a trip to Catalonia, I found a doc my best friend made with all the things she's learned from me over the years about Catalan history/language and my Catalan PhD chapter, and I don't think any citation will ever top that

Was digging through my closet for a stats book to help me with some code, then found some blank ceramic coasters and dishes I got a while ago and got sidetracked...so anyway now I have hoopoe-themed decor AND my code ran and works! 🎉

A photo of one small dish and a coaster resting on a paper towel. They are both painted brown/orange with black and white lines to represent hoopoe feather patterns

Almost the end of Pride month, so a reminder why it's still so relevant: It's been 2 yrs since I went to the police and formally reported members of my dept for harassment, doxxing, and stalking, only for Aberdeen to say I was the problem and would face disciplinary action if I kept making trouble

A day late, but happy International Horseshoe Crab Day! Most people are perplexed to find out not only that my top three favourite animals aren't birds, but one is a horseshoe crab. But they’re just so cool and one thing I miss about the US is driving to the coast to see them spawning on the beach 💙

A photo of two horseshoe crabs on a beach

Doing an interdisciplinary thesis is so cool because I can go from reading a paper on climate change affecting seabirds to a paper on linguistic violence under fascist regimes and it's all going into the same thesis, I still can't get over how exciting that is and how much I'm learning!

Every time I have to do annual information security and data protection training for Aberdeen, I always think about the time I applied to this PhD and the uni/DTP representative accidentally sent all of us applicants a file with the full names/personal info of all our competitors for the position 😅

Today marks one year from submitting my PhD, so I got flowers to celebrate! Over the past few years at Aberdeen I never imagined I'd even reach this point, so I'm very proud and grateful. Now to count down the days until I can submit and finally find a safe place to continue to grow as a researcher!

A photo of two vases with flowers on a windowsill, with green bushes in the sunlight in the background. One vase is brown and blue with white designs and has yellow tulips in it, and the second case is yellow and white with pink tulips

This weekend I found a hand-carved helmeted guineafowl in a charity shop (which I obviously took home), which then inspired me to draw the species! Being in the last year of my PhD I haven't been able to draw anything in a while, so I really enjoyed it!

A digital drawing of a helmeted guineafowl, a brown bird with light speckled feathers across its entire body, with a blue head, red waddle adn top of head, with a brown crest on its head. In the background is tan grass and the top of the image says "Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Numida meleagris" [scientific name]Photo of a hand-carved wooden helmeted guinea fowl, a black bird with white spots with a blue head, red waddle and top of hear, and a brown crest. It is sitting on a wooden desk with a blue couch in the background.

This weekend I've been deep in the literature writing up one of my thesis chapters, and came across what might be one of the most wholesome academic acknowledgements in a book I've ever seen (from "Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation")

A screenshot of an electronic page of a book with the acknowledgements page reading "It occurred to us at the same moment to dedicate this book to each other. We do so as a celebration of an extraordinarily happy collaboration, in which we experienced many of the things we were writing about"

Ecological Solutions and Evidence is accepting proposals for their latest Special Feature! They invite scientists and practitioners to share experiences from management projects that didn't turn out as expected, but still provided important insights into how best to manage ecosystems and species 🌱

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Are you an early career professional (last two years of PhD or first five years in your job/post PhD?) attending #AOS26 in Amherst MA this summer? We're looking for a diverse range of speakers to be featured in our Early Professionals symposia. DM me for more details!