EACR Ambassador Jeremiah Stanley took part in a wing walk in Cirencester this June, and saw it as a fun and unusual opportunity to help promote #EACR2027 in Bilbao. Jeremiah joined the EACR in August 2025, and is coming up on his first year as a member and ambassador. He considers himself to be “still relatively new” which meant that wing walking “felt like the perfect excuse to tick off a bucket-list adventure while flying the EACR flag.”
The wing walk involves being strapped to a purpose-built rig on top of a vintage biplane for an 8-10 minute flight, at speeds of up to 140mph and heights of 1,000ft. “It was definitely fun, with the stress dissipating into thin air!” said Jeremiah.
What do you enjoy most about being an EACR member and ambassador?
I’ve built a great rapport with several fellow ambassadors through LinkedIn, and that network has been the best part for me so far. Beyond that, EACR membership sends a steady stream of genuinely useful opportunities, from conferences and travel grants to fellowships and posts. It’s also been a great way to keep up with what peers across Europe are doing, and I’m really looking forward to meeting many of them in person in Bilbao in 2027.
Did anyone think you were crazy for wing walking?
I actually didn’t tell anyone beforehand. My colleagues only found out after I posted it on social media. A few of the comments were:
“Do you have a death wish, J?”
“All this airplane adrenaline rush to flush out the work-induced cortisol?”
“You took the phrase ‘mad scientist’ a bit too literally.”
Most of it was said in disbelief, but underneath it they were genuinely happy for me.
Why a wing walk for #EACR2027?
The EACR community keeps growing, and Bilbao in 2027 is going to be its biggest meeting yet. Wing walking had been on my bucket list for years, and when I finally decided to do it, it struck me as a fun and unconventional way to promote the Congress. A normal conference advert reaches people who already know the EACR, so someone standing on top of a flying biplane at 1,000 feet tends to make people stop scrolling. As an ambassador, I wanted to create that moment of curiosity, because sometimes getting your science and your community noticed means doing something a little out of the ordinary.
Jeremiah Stanley is a virologist and cancer researcher based at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where he holds a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research looks at how chronic viral infections, particularly Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), reshape host biology to drive cancer. He is currently investigating the role of serotonin in EBV-driven oncogenesis, working with Professor Paul Murray at the Bernal Institute.
Thanks Jeremiah for promoting #EACR2027 in Bilbao! For more details regarding next year’s congress, head over to 2027.eacr.org
What is the EACR Ambassador programme?
EACR Ambassadors are a group of dedicated EACR members who volunteer their time to help the EACR. We work with our Ambassadors in a wide variety of ways and we greatly value their help in many aspects of EACR activity. Any EACR members can be an ambassador, whether they are PhD students or senior researchers, as well as academics or scientists working in industry.
What do EACR Ambassadors do?
EACR Ambassadors raise awareness of the EACR membership by:
- Talking to colleagues about the EACR and its professional importance
- Giving us highly valued opinions, feedback and advice on specific issues
- Forwarding our email news bulletins to colleagues who may find the content interesting
- Telling early-career researchers about EACR Travel Grants, Awards and Fellowships
- Highlighting the programme and special member rates for EACR conferences
- Getting involved in Ambassador-led events at EACR conferences
- Emphasising the need for a strong voice for cancer research, and cancer researchers, in Europe
How can I become an EACR Ambassador?
If you are an EACR member and you’re interested in increasing your involvement with the EACR community by becoming an Ambassador, please email Sam Kirk, our Membership Coordinator, at samantha.kirk@eacr.org
