Stella Felsinger

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

www.linkedin.com/in/stella-felsinger

ORCID: 0000-0002-0150-8389

Research interests

My current research focuses on bee health and well-being in managed agricultural landscapes, with broader interests in eusociality, collective decision-making, colony cognition, and communication in honeybees. 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.

In 2020, I was awarded a BBSRC-iCASE studentship in partnership with industrial partner Canetis SRL and co-supervised by Geraldine Wright (Oxford Bee Lab) and Beth Mortimer (Animal Vibration Lab). My doctoral research focused on developing interpretable machine learning methods to relate honeybee hive acoustics to colony state and behaviour. I also investigated the impact of often overlooked parameters such as microphone placement and test set choice on model performance.

Having submitted my thesis in April 2025, I now work as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Oxford Bee Lab, supporting ongoing projects and preparing my research for publication.

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.