Hayley Beth Free

It's not a coincidence that so many of the coolest people I know are women in science 🧬🌴🐝🧪👯‍♀️

Join us for the IDEA Symposium at SMBE 2026 (June 28–July 2) in Copenhagen! We celebrate SMBE’s commitment to inclusion, equity, and diversity by addressing systemic inequities in molecular biology and evolution.

💬 Like to participate? Abstract deadline is February 3rd!
smbe2026.org/symposia/

Another great year at PopGroup @popgroup2026.bsky.social and my frist time visiting Lille. I had the pleasure of giving a talk on some of my PhD work, as well as hearing about really interesting research, and of course seeing old friends and making new ones. Thanks to all the organisers!

I am so grateful to have been awarded the bursary to the Understanding Life biodiversity genomics conferece! It was a great oppitunity to hear about and discuss amazing research in the field, as well as present findings from my PhD 🧬

🤝 In 2024, the 𝗦𝗠𝗕𝗘 𝗡𝗼𝗻-𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 from @official-smbe.bsky.social went to Drs. Boris Armel Olou, Jean Legeay, Jean Evans Israel Codjia & Roël Dire Houdanon for their project strengthening African researchers in Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics.

✨ Excited about the impact so far!

🤝 In 2024, the 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗔 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁 from @official-smbe.bsky.social went to Drs. Rori Rohlfs and Emilia Huerta-Sanchez for their podcast ScienceWise!

✨ We are happy to have contributed to their project!

🎙️ @sciencewisepod.bsky.social

⏳ Don't miss out! Submit your proposals by 𝗢𝗰𝘁 𝟭𝟬 and help shape a more inclusive science community!

@official-smbe.bsky.social #AcademicSky

I really enjoy making fun ways to present my research, and with the controversial use of AI for image generation, I decided to get creative and draw my own images...

Meet my new team of anurans - ready to help me present my research on endogenous viral elements in their genomes!

SMBE IDEA 2026 call for proposals SMBE, through the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) task force, aims to address systemic racism, sexism, colonialism and other exclusion in our SMBE society. With this in mind, SMBE has m...

LAST CHANCE FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION!

SMBE IDEA 2026
Supporting intiatives tackling inequities in evolutionary biology

We have funding in:
💡 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access ($25k)
🪂 Non-Parachute Science ($10k)
🗣️ Outreach ($10k)

📅 Deadline: Oct 10, 2025
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Exciting news!
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.

This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.

More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

See you there !

Call for proposals - SMBE IDEA 2026

📢 Call for proposals - SMBE IDEA 2026

@smbe-idea.bsky.social invites all SMBE members to propose initiatives for 2025/2026 to reduce inequities in our field.

Categories:

💡 IDEA ($25k)
🪂 Non-Parachute Science ($10k)
🗣️ Outreach ($10k)

Deadline: Oct. 10 2025

More info: smbe.org/idea-initiatives

😂😂

Loved the sticker. It’s totally fridge-level. @hayleybethfree.bsky.social #ESEB2025 #ESEB25 #TransposableElements

Honoured! 🐸🧬

Anurans! Transposable elements! Come and spill the TE at my poster 304 at #eseb2025 and get yourself a sticker

🐸🧬

So exciting that our work is at #SMBE2025 in Beijing!

If you're at #SMBE2025 in Beijing this year, check out Symposium 35: Open symposium session E where my supervisor @ravinderkanda.bsky.social will be talking about some of our research on #transposableelement diversity in frogs and toads 🐸🧬

I attended my last BBSRC DTP symposium at @ox.ac.uk - four years has passed so quickly! I presented some of my PhD research to my collegues across the cohorts and got to hear about some of their amazing research as well

I spent an afternoon at @geneticscam.bsky.social, University of Cambridge, for the Anniversary Day of @gensocuk.bsky.social - there were some great talks ranging from quantitative traits in natural populations to an eye-opening discussion on the history and philosophy of genetics. Happy anniversary!

Endogenous retroviruses are cool (congrats @charlesmichie.bsky.social)

I attended the K-mers in Biodiversity Genomics workshop last week with @eventswcs.bsky.social. It was very useful learning all about k-mers and their uses with the latest software, giving us hands on experience. Also a great way to meet people from across the world and enjoy the beautiful campus!

It's been a busy start to the new year - presenting at #PopGroup58 at the University of Sheffield (and having a great time as always) and then again the #BrookesPGSymposium - the latter of which I won first prize! 🧬🐸