During the summer break we saw the arrival of a lone, quiet, little bear at Staffordshire University’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences department. This unexpected mysterious, arrival had no name, no identification, but a lot of curiosity for all things science and eager to gain some hands on experience. Being friendly scientists, and naturally curious ourselves, we welcomed this enthusiastic Ursine (scientific name of bears) to the department. Of course, every great scientist has to start somewhere and we’re more than happy to help them on their journey no matter the species. Our motto is ‘One Biology, One World, Endless Connections’ after all!
Firstly, we needed to enrol our new researcher into the department and for that our little bear colleague needed a name. The Ursine scientist asked if we could pick a name, but picking just one name proved difficult. We decided the best thing to do would be to put the suggested names into a poll for the public to vote. After some time, the votes were counted and there was a very clear winning name. Our excitement grew as we could finally enrol our furry friend but we wanted to get permission from the person whose name we would be using a version of. We know this seems strange but bear with us it’ll all make sense soon.
A letter was written and sent in the post while we all eagerly awaited the response, which we didn’t have to wait long for!
The science bear couldn’t wait to open (although clumsily) the letter to read the good news! The sender who gave their permission you ask? Well that was none other than the brilliant Sir David Attenborough himself! The winning name was David AttenBear, which Sir David was very flattered our fuzzy friend would take a version of his name.
We can now officially introduce our newest member of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences department, David AttenBear. After getting Sir David’s letter, David AttenBear was honoured as he knew of Sir David’s integral work in conservation and inspiring the next generation of scientist all over the world across the 67 years he has worked at the BBC. Now David AttenBear is enrolled he can begin to get his paws into some work experience. Over the coming months we have some exciting opportunities for AttenBear to get involved with and we’ve asked if he can keep us up to date with some blog entries of his own. We hope David will enjoy his stay with us at Staffs and the things we have lined up for him.
Not only to gain some experience of being a scientist but also getting to live the Staffordshire University values we hold dear. Keep an eye out for the upcoming blogs by David AttenBear on his scientific journey with us and you might even bump into our beary enthusiastic friend at a school, college or event near you. Be sure to say ‘Hi!’ and take a picture with David AttenBear and tag us in it @SUBioScience on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or send an email to Victoria.McQuillan@staffs.ac.uk (Victoria’s helping David get his bearings with researcher life).