This week we absolutely loved talking with Isolde Gottwald (AKA Issie), an exchange student from the University of Vienna who spent semester 2 this year studying with us at the University of Melbourne. Listen to the podcast to hear how we got to know Issie!

Within her degree, Issie is particularly interested in environmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Out of her deep curiosity for science and the practice of science, she worked as a student assistant and intern at various research institutions. That’s when she discovered her passion for science communication, which led her to work at Wissenschaft im Dialog, the German National Organisation for Science Communication in 2021. The planned two-month internship turned into nine months of her working as a student on several different projects. She was primarily involved in planning and organising a public participation initiative that aimed to achieve greater public engagement in science and research activities in Germany. In addition, she had the chance to work as a moderator for the project “I’m a Scientist - get me out of here”, an online platform that allows students to have a direct and low-threshold exchanges with scientists. She was also involved in the jury for the project “Hochschulwettbewerb” - a competition inviting students, postdocs and young researchers from all disciplines to submit creative and interactive project ideas about projects that actively involve the public in their research and build trust and bridges between society and science. Isolde is particularly interested in climate change communication which combines both her interests for science communication and climate psychology. Besides her studies, Isolde is an enthusiastic skier, nature lover and mountain climber.

You can follow Issie and learn more about her work here:

https://twitter.com/isoldegottwald

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/f43e