Cecylia Watrobska

Role: Fourth year PhD student, Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London 
Funded by the Imperial College London-Royal Holloway University of London BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme

Subject area: Learning and memory in insects

Nationality: British and Polish

Hi! I’m a PhD student working on learning and memory in bees. This involves getting bees to complete different tasks, such as learning to recognise colours or patterns that mean they receive a sweet reward, and then seeing how long they can remember it for. When I’m not working I enjoy volunteering, hiking and hanging out with my cat. 

Hear from Cecylia, who is researching the learning and memory of bees.

Interview with Cecylia

Hear from Cecylia, who is researching the learning and memory of bees.

Education

EducationGCSE (or equivalent): Maths, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ICT, RE, French, Latin,  Music, English Language and English Literature

A-Level (or equivalent): Biology, Chemistry, Music, Polish and AS-levels in Maths and French 

Degrees:
• BSc Biology, Imperial College London
• MSci by research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, Imperial College London
• MSci Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London
• PhD Biological Sciences (ongoing), Royal Holloway University of London

Detail about Cecylia

Research

My research

My research focuses on how much energy an individual animal must put into learning a task and forming memories. Because energy is limited, putting energy into forming a memory may mean that you have less energy for other processes in the body. I’m trying to find out what (if any!) body processes are sacrificed by bees when they put energy into learning and memory.   
 

My inspiration

My inspiration

When I first saw a live bumblebee colony I was fascinated by how every bee appeared to know exactly where to go and what to do – over 100 of them! I have been hooked on working with bees ever since.

My STEM hero

Who is your STEM hero?

My dad. When I was younger we would always do projects together, like building volcanoes and bird houses. This nurtured my love of science.

Electronic image of stomach held between two hands of white lab coated person

Most significant discovery/invention?

An emerging field of science studying gut bacteria and the gut-brain axis. Scientists are discovering some amazing things, including how your gut bacteria affect your behaviour and mood, and how this may be linked to different diseases. We couldn’t live without our resident gut microbes, yet we know so little about them.

Imperial magazine

Career options after study

  • Researcher at a university or institute 
  • Biology teacher/lecturer
  • Curator/Researcher in a museum 
  • Editor in science publishing
  • Data scientist
man teaching two girls to do CPR on a manikin

My hobbies

My hobbies are volunteering on an ambulance and doing first aid, hiking, and doing sudokus. I also have pet shrimp.

Cecylia talks about her research into how much energy an individual animal must put into learning a task and forming memories through stud. Bumblebee queen experiment acknowledgements: E. Leadbeater and A. Ramos Rodrigues, Royal Holloway; P. Sima, Koppet.

Cecylia talks about her research

Cecylia talks about her research into how much energy an individual animal must put into learning a task and forming memories through studying bees.

Bumblebee queen experiment acknowledgements: Elli Leadbeater and Ana Ramos Rodrigues, Royal Holloway University of London; Peter Sima, Koppert

Learn more about others working in this area

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