Let's Talk SciComm

Welcome to Season Nine of Let’s Talk SciComm! We’re thrilled to be back with another season, chatting each week about our very favourite topic – how we can all be more effective when it comes to communicating about science.

We’re kicking off the season talking with our good friend Dr Shane Huntington OAM (@DrShaneRRR) – in case you haven’t listened yet, you can get to know Shane on episode 9 of Let’s Talk SciComm! Shane is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Little Big Steps; a charity helping kids with cancer.  

Shane is also a speaker, trainer and facilitator. He has been providing consulting services in communication and strategy for over 25 years and is the host and producer of 3RRR’s science radio program Einstein A Go Go. In 2020 he was awarded an Order of Australia in recognition of his science communication work.

In this episode we asked Shane to share his advice on how to ask good questions. Whether you’re going to a conference or interviewing someone about their work, being able to ask interesting, thoughtful questions is an important skill. And given Shane has interviewed thousands of scientists over the past 30 years on radio, he’s a great person to get advice from!

Shane is also a prolific writer with articles on Medium.com read more than 100,000 times. He is the Founder and Director of the Innovation Group Pty Ltd, a scientific equipment supplier in Australia and New Zealand since 1999 and is a Senior Associate with consulting firm Outside Opinion.  

Until January 2019 he was Deputy Director of the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health (MACH) which he established in 2011. Prior to his work in the Faculty of Medicine, he was Principal Strategy Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne, Prof. Glyn Davis.  

From 2005 to 2008 he was the CEO and Founder of Quantum Communications Victoria within the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne. Quantum Communications Victoria was a $9.3Million Government funded centre which developed telecommunications security based on Quantum Physics and exported Australia’s first quantum product. 

Shane’s specialty was in Photonics and Imaging and he has published more than 75 refereed journal papers during his 10 years in research.  

Shane was the Founder of the Telescopes in Schools Program, a Victorian based initiative designed to bring the wonders of Astronomy and education to low SES schools in Melbourne’s Northern and Western suburbs and rural districts through the prevision of research grade telescopes and support.  

He holds an honorary appointment at the University of Melbourne in the School of Engineering and is an Ambassador for the Lost Dogs Home. 

You can follow Shane and learn more about his work here:

https://shanehuntington.com/

https://twitter.com/DrShaneRRR

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shane-huntington-oam-684894/

https://littlebigsteps.org.au/about-2/our-who/our-team/

https://www.outsideopinion.com.au/team/shane-huntington

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/gi9s

This week we are so delighted to chat with Olly Dove. Living up to her bird name, Olly Dove is a marine ecology PhD candidate researching the foraging behaviour of little penguins and short-tailed shearwaters in lutruwita/Tasmania. Olly’s favourite part of working in zoology is undoubtedly the exciting fieldwork it leads her to, and

When not hanging out with critters, Olly is an incredible science communicator. She is the weekly host, a co-manager, and an editor on the nipaluna/Hobart-based radio/podcast show, That’s What I Call Science, which was recently awarded a prestigious Eureka Prize for STEM inclusion. Other recent scicomm adventures for Olly have

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

https://thatsscience.org/

https://twitter.com/olly_dove

https://twitter.com/ThatsScienceTAS

https://www.instagram.com/ols_dove/

https://www.instagram.com/thatssciencetas/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollydove/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/j79s

This week we have the enormous pleasure of speaking with Dr Jenny Gray who is the Chief Executive Officer of Zoos Victoria, charged with the operation of the Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary, Kyabram Fauna Park and Werribee Open Range Zoo.  

Over the last decade Zoos Victoria has transformed into a Zoo Based Conservation Organisation, committed to fighting extinction and creating a future rich in wildlife. Working closely with 27 critically endangered species and engaging with over 2.6 million visitors and 360,000 members, Zoos Victoria is testing models of optimism and bravery to address threats to species survival and enhancing care of wildlife.  

Jenny has a wide range of public and private sector experience having worked in transportation, airlines and banking, before moving into the zoo industry in South Africa, then Australia. Jenny has qualifications in Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Business Administration and Ethics. Jenny is the Deputy Chancellor at Victoria University and serves on the Board of the Biodiversity Council.

You can follow Jenny and learn more about her work here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-gray-ab582767/

And here’s the link to Jenny’s Book, Zoo Ethics: https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7667/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/8sfs

This week we were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with Emily Denniss who is a PhD Candidate at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University. Her research is focused nutrition communication and misinformation on social media and how social media is used by young adults to seek information about food and nutrition. Emily also teaches into undergraduate public health and nutrition science units at Deakin and gave us lots of food for thought about understanding online misinformation.

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

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilydenniss/

https://twitter.com/denniss_emily

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily-Denniss-2

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/2tbs

This week we had the great pleasure of chatting with Joshua Tinner who is full of fantastic advice about how to build your professional networks. Josh currently the Country Manager of the UK team at InternMatch, a company that helps students and graduates find internships as a step towards employment. Previously Josh has worked in a variety of businesses including managing the administration of a migration consultancy, helping run the division of Melbourne for two federal elections, assistant-coaching a football team, and seven years of bartending. As demonstrated through this loose associations of jobs, Josh believes that there is no one ‘pathway’ to a career and encourages people to “wander through the forest of possibilities, rather than stick to the motorway someone else has laid over it.”

The best piece of career advice that Josh ever received (as part of his EMA at the University of Melbourne, no less!) was the following: “People focus too much on what they want to do but not where or for what reason they want to do it.” Finding your passion is all well and good but Josh wants to help people find their cause, the reason they want to do what they do, and he has built his career on helping others find their answer to this very question.

You can follow Josh and learn more about him here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-tinner/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/q2bs

This week we were thrilled Executive Recruiter and Scientist Marilyn Jones was able to make time to chat with us. Marilyn has over 25 years’ experience in resourcing staff for companies and assisting individuals with their career aspirations and we learned so much from her about how to get your dream job.

Marilyn undertook research in cancer and immunology, leading to managing an R&D project for the commercialisation of the purified components of snake venom for human therapeutic purposes. Combined with additional commercialisation projects in wheat identification and infectious diseases, she gained a comprehensive understanding of the diagnostics and drug development sectors.

After a period of selling complex scientific instrumentation systems into the Pharmaceutical, Research, Pathology, Analytical and Manufacturing sectors, she made the fortuitous move into Recruitment. Working for both boutique and multinational recruitment organisations, Marilyn has worked across many industry and business sectors. She particularly enjoys the challenge of ‘The Search’ for hard-to-fill senior roles.

Marilyn’s focus in starting her company in 2011 was to look after the individual. This has developed into an extensive program – mexec jobstrategy™ working with candidates in many industries to assist them on one on one in their career aspirations and job search strategy. mexec Executive Search Recruitment division assists start-ups to multinational companies with their HR and recruitment requirements from graduate to Board level.

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

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynmexec/

https://www.mexec.com/about-us/

https://www.mexec.com/13-day-jobs-of-marilyn/

https://www.stemwomen.org.au/profile/marilyn-jones

https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2019/08/call-me-why-recruiters-want-you-to-pick-up-the-phone/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/q9ys

This week we had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Bruce Kirchoff who is a scientist, improviser, and storyteller. He teaches young scientists to speak clearly and intelligibly about their research. His book Presenting Science Concisely (https://presentingscienceconcisely.com/book) draws on the relation between the scientific process and story structure to present science with impact.  

Bruce is also Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he taught courses in plant diversity, flowering plant identification, and evolution. His research combined insights from biology and cognitive psychology to improve the reliability of plant description and classification. As a software designer he developed visual, active learning software to rapidly teach plant identification, and chemical structures. He has won the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award from the Botanical Society of America, and the Innovations in Plant Systematics Education Prize from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. He has studied scientific communication at the Alan Alda Center for Scientific Communication and teaches it through the UNC Greensboro Speaking Center, where he is a Faculty Fellow. He also teaches workshops in storytelling and improv and, before his retirement, was the faculty advisor for the UNCG student improv club.

You can follow Bruce and learn more about his work here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucekirchoff/

https://twitter.com/1andOnlyBruce

https://www.youtube.com/@sci-comm (Bruce’s YouTube channel)

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/s8ys

This week we were so lucky to have the opportunity to chat with Professor David Dunstan about being a research supervisor. David holds a joint appointment at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia with the positions of: Head – Baker/Deakin Department of Lifestyle and Diabetes and Chair, Lifestyle and Diabetes (Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin); and Deputy Director/Physical Activity Laboratory Head (Baker).

His research focuses on understanding the adverse health consequences of too much sitting and the potential health benefits resulting from frequently breaking up sitting time. In particular, he has developed effective strategies to reduce and break up sitting time in adults with or at risk of developing chronic diseases and to support office workers to reduce sedentary behaviour in workplace settings. His current focus is directed at understanding how best to implement efficacious ‘sit less and move more’ interventions at scale within the healthcare setting for those living with chronic diseases and elucidating the effects of sedentary behaviour on brain health. Relevant to our conversation, David has supervised many, many thriving and successful research students and has lots of excellent advice to share.

You can follow David and learn more about his work here:

https://baker.edu.au/research/staff/david-dunstan

https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/david-dunstan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-dunstan-07777a3/

https://twitter.com/DavidWDunstan

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/u24s

This week we had the best time chatting with Belinda (Bel) Smith, science writer extraordinaire. Belinda became a science journalist after realising she wasn't going to cut it as a scientist. Based in Melbourne, she's currently science reporter at the ABC. Her work appears on the ABC News website and has featured in the Best Australian Science Writing 2016 and 2018. You can also hear her talking about science on local ABC radio and Radio National. In her spare time, Bel's a GPS artist who runs routes in the shape of animals.

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

https://www.abc.net.au/news/belinda-smith/9065300

https://www.belindasmithsciencewriter.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/belsmith/

https://twitter.com/sciencebelinda

https://www.instagram.com/animalpunruns/ (Bel’s GPS running art)

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/u2fs

Welcome to another season of Let’s Talk SciComm! We’re very excited to be back with Season Eight, podcasting about our very favourite topic – science communication.

We’re kicking off the season talking with the brilliant Julia Cleghorn about approaches to getting kids excited about science.

Julia is an extroverted science geek, science communicator, project manager and performer at heart. Her career combines science and the arts to promote engagement and curiosity in science. She has communicated science to kids on TV - as writer, producer and presenter for Network Ten’s Scope; in magazines - as writer for CSIRO’s Double Helix; and on stage - with the Shell Questacon Science Circus. 

She currently works at the University of Melbourne as the Manager of STEM Outreach Programs. Her team develops and delivers workshops, shows and mentoring programs to inspire high school students to study STEM. Many programs are equity focused to drive change for low SES, regional and Indigenous students. 

Ultimately, her goal is to contribute to a more informed and curious society. She believes the wonder of scientific research and discovery can help people feel alive, and have a better appreciation of the world around them.

You can follow Julia and learn more about her work here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-cleghorn-b3029a37/

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/8mhs