Dr. Stella Felsinger

Young woman with brown hair and yellow cap in front of grassland and mountains.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Biology
stella.felsinger@biology.ox.ac.uk

www.linkedin.com/in/stella-felsinger

ORCID: 0000-0002-0150-8389

Research interests

My research focuses on honeybee and bumblebee health and well-being in agricultural settings, with broader interests in eusociality, collective decision-making, colony cognition, and communication. I am also interested in the application of machine learning and bioacoustics for monitoring biodiversity and animal behaviour in diverse species.

About

I obtained my BSc in Natural Sciences (2018) and MScR in Bioinformatics (2019) from Durham University, where I researched the ecological evolution of extinct invertebrates and investigated how semantic morphological character partitioning affects phylogenetic reconstruction.

My doctoral research, supervised by Geraldine Wright (Oxford Bee Lab), Beth Mortimer (Animal Vibration Lab) and industrial partner Canetis SRL, focused on applying interpretable machine learning methods to relate honeybee hive audio to colony state and behaviour. I also investigated the impact of often overlooked parameters such as microphone placement, test set design and hive identity on model performance.

I now work as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Oxford Bee Lab, supporting a project on bumblebee pollination and colony dynamics in greenhouses.

Publications
Honeybee sounds

Honeybee hive sounds

Honeybee hives show diurnal variation in the frequency and volume of their buzz. This 1-minute clip spanning a full day from midnight to midnight was featured as part of the "Sound Canopy" installation at Glastonbury 2022.