Sofia Castelló y Tickell

Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell is a British-Mexican marine conservation scientist and artist working across comedy, creative writing, film, and theater. 🪸🎭 She holds an AB in Biology and Photojournalism from Brown University, as well as an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation & Management and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Oxford. She has published academic work across marine ecology and conservation, stakeholder conflict and effective environmental communication, and created award-winning stop motion animations about marine life. She co-founded the Good Natured film festival in 2019, which connects winning filmmakers with industry mentors and has showcased 86 hopeful environmental shorts in 11 languages from 23 countries. She also directed, performed in and conducted research on Wild Things, an improvised comedy show about conservation which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. She was a 2024 award winner of the National Academies’ Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications, which honor exceptional science communicators, journalists, and research scientists who have developed creative, original work to communicate issues and advances in science, engineering, or medicine for the general public. You can learn more about Sofia and her ocean science themed comedy at the link in @scicommexcellence ’s bio. #scicomm #comedy #marinebio #oceanlife #oceans #artsci #WorldOceansDay

🌊Inexhaustible is a one-woman show about saving the ocean (and oneself)🏊 20th and 21st February, Tickets are PWYC 🎟️ 🐟Sofia navigates marine conservation and early career academia in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, as well as reckoning with ancestors who may have contributed to current problems. 🐬Is there any way the ocean is inexhaustible, as was predicted in the 18th century? And are environmentalists? This show will be a staged reading to gather feedback. This project is funded by a Catalyst Science Communication grant from Schmidt Sciences / UCSC. @sofiaatsea is a British-Mexican marine conservation scientist and artist working across comedy, creative writing, film, and theatre. She often uses humour to communicate about environmental issues, and created the Wild Things improvised comedy show and Good Natured Film Festival.

Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell (@sofiaatsea ) is a marine biologist who lives far from the ocean, in London. Lately she spends more time on the Underground than underwater. So she signed up for a theater workshop where she spent three days inhabiting an animal. She chose a penguin. At first, she felt ridiculous. But then something shifted. “It was peaceful and meditative. I didn’t have to think about anything but being a penguin.” Weeks later on the Tube at rush hour, she did a tiny preen and it conjured a little bit of her favorite place—right in the middle of London. Follow along this week as we share more from “For the Love of Science”—a week of short stories from researchers about the small moments, the unexpected catalysts, the overlooked stories that shaped who they became in science.

I’m supervising a research project on marine sculptures as human-made reefs at @rhul_biodep and we’d really love your help! If you know of any artistic or religious #sculptures in the ocean, pretty please fill out this survey: tinyurl.com/marine-sculptures (link also in bio). And if you think anyone in your network might be aware of one, please share this post! (Above is a photo of a sculpture of the Virgin Mary I took during my PhD fieldwork in Mexico! But sculptures can take lots of different forms) #conservation #marineconservation #research #oceanart

An honour to take the stage at the Royal Geographical Society and share the story of the @wildthings.improv project at #rgsexploreweekend2025! It was also wonderful to participate in a panel on #sciencecommunication with @huwmjames and Mark Gnadt, and get such thoughtful questions about how to reach different audiences and build up skills and a track record in outreach. A really inspiring conference on the whole, full of people with exciting ideas. Highly recommend going next year if you are an exploratory type with dreams of ambitious fieldwork. Thanks to @rgs_ibg for having me, and to Spike Reid for the onstage photo 📸

Earlier this year, one of my friends decided to have a pottery painting workshop for her bachelorette/hen party. I happened to be home in Mexico City and was thrilled to attend. When it was revealed we would be painting her a set of plates with marine themes, I obviously couldn’t have been happier! Meant to be

A 7th year of the Good Natured @conservationoptimism Film Festival premiere, wrapped! If you had told me as a PhD student scheming with @dropsofwander and @ejmilnergulland that the festival would make it to such biblical proportions, I’m not sure I would have believed it… It was great to lead a team once more to curate this range of short films showcasing environmental hope across the globe, soon available to watch virtually on YouTube. If you’d like to set up an in-person screening this year, let us know! Thanks as always to the wonderful filmmakers and artists who shared their work, the judges/mentors who donated their time (including @laurens_colours & @twomey.nora ), the volunteers and team members (especially Hollie Thompson & @africanhorses ) who made it a reality, Fran Hale for these photos, and @morethanadodo for hosting us 🦕♥️

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been diving back into standup across London! Thanks to @comedyincorporated for having me on to talk about turtles with straws up their noses tonight 🍹 and to @jessrmch for being a ride-or-die plus 1 since we were 2

A hugely inspiring week of thinking and talking about science books in California, courtesy of @ucsc.scicomm and @schmidtsciences ! And now for those ideas to percolate…

Belated #EdFringe @just.improv field trip photo dump! We had a fabulous time watching shows, guest performing with @hofimprov and generally gaining creative inspiration 🎭 Look out for our upcoming shows over the next few months!

Fell in love with the isle of Portland!

This past year of lecturing (for the first time!) has been one of the most rewarding of my career. I have *loved* teaching courses like Ecology & Conservation, Marine Ecology & Biodiversity, Conservation Science and Extreme Animal Physiology, as well as supervising different research projects. It has been fantastic to get to know students and guide them on their way; I have learned so much from them and my colleagues. And recently, I was so happy to hear that I was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching award! A few projects I worked on included adapting a final poster to make it more authentic as a role-played conservation grant pitching session for the “Moneybags Foundation”, designing interactive learning activities (e.g. “you are a marine biologist who has just been drafted onto a field trip and you need be able to ID 20 endangered coral species in 20 mins, with only a dive slate [A4 page] to help you - go!”), installing dyslexia-friendly fonts across all campus computers, and more… Special thanks to @conservationpaul and @the_hollitype who kindly gave up their time to chat with the students during career Q&As!