Tak attended The Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Biology & the Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology, which was held from 9 to 12 July at the University of Sydney, Australia (http://conferences.science.unsw.edu.au/SMB2018/).

After acclimatising to the austral winter, Tak presented new work by the Chisholm Lab that uses mathematical models to explain the shape of species–area relationships on islands, and obtained valuable feedback. He also re-united with researchers he had met in previous years, as well as engaging with other researchers: there were interesting conversations on hot topics in theoretical ecology and mathematical biology in general. Furthermore, Tak attended many talks and poster presentations, where he absorbed fresh ideas that could serve as inspiration for his own work.

Sydney University