Next up in our new Meet the Editor series is Nathalie Pettorelli. Discover the place she’d recommend you travel to and how you can catch up with her at this year’s British Ecological Society Annual Meeting.
What can you tell us about the first paper you published?
It was about roe deer in France and the ideal free distribution, and I celebrated like hell when it was accepted!
What’s your favourite species and why?
Orcas: highly adaptable, hugely social, matriarchal, rule the seas, always seem to do everything with style.
Who inspired you most as a student?
My dad. He supported me while developing a career in a domain he had no idea about, enabling me to take risks and go for what I wanted to do, not what he thought would be best for me.
If you could wake up tomorrow with a new skill, what would it be?
Fly, I’d love to fly – but evolution seems to have ruled this one out for me sadly.
Are you a good cook? What’s your signature dish?
I’m a cook that gets easily bored, so I’m good at cooking stuff I have never cooked (I get really excited by that), but I’m rubbish at cooking every day – that said, I seem to generally produce edible food. My signature dish would have to be a dessert, probably a good old apple tart.
Please share a [funny] story about a paper you had rejected.
I struggle to put together ‘funny’ with ‘rejected’!
What’s your favourite sport and why?
Volleyball, because I use to play it as a kid and have a lot of fun doing so.
If you could recommend one place for people to travel to on holiday, where would it be and why?
The country where you live. We are quick at dismissing our local surroundings and are bad at spotting beauty near us. There are incredible places to see in the world, and they are all worth a visit – but one does not have to go far to be surprised and charmed.
What was the first album you owned?
The soundtrack to Dirty Dancing…yep….
If any fictional character could join your lab, who would it be and why?
Indiana Jones please – I think he would fit like a glove there.
How many British Ecological Society Annual Meetings have you attended? Which one was the best?
I think it’s five? I loved the one in Edinburgh – it was a lot of fun, from the sacrifice of the Haggis to the chaotic ceilidh, just a lot of fun.
Are you attending #BES2018? If so, when is the best opportunity for people to meet you?
Yes! Any time is good – I am coming to meet people, so that’s all there is on my agenda! Just grab me at any point, you’ll never be coming to me at a bad time.
Nathalie Pettorelli is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, UK. The core of Nathalie’s published research focuses on climate change and its effects on animal ecology and ecosystem functioning. Extensive experience with remote sensing data and its usefulness in ecology and conservation also drives her interest in promoting a better integration of satellite-based data in global monitoring programs.
Follow Nathalie on Twitter: @Pettorelli.
Meet more of our Editors here:
The Applied Ecologist 
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