The Laborastory

Vanessa is a soil scientist and Senior Lecturer in Soil and Land Management at Monash University. She spends her spare time cycling in Melbourne and around regional Victoria, she says this is great as a soil scientist because it means that you can look at the exposed soil profiles on road cuttings as you ride by and see how they change. She likes to think that that's the reason why she’s slow riding up hills! She tells the story of the German chemist Justus von Liebig.

Mel Mackenzie’s day job is looking after a research collection of marine invertebrates at Museum Victoria. Her tenuous link with soil science is her passion for sea cucumbers …. The earthworms of the ocean!

But tonight she’s straying out of her comfort zone to talk about a little-known physicist from Melbourne, Andrew Keith Jack.

Richard graduated in ecology from Edinburgh University, then spent 15 years managing a small Scottish estate and studying the works of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, the renowned Andalusian scholar and mystic before returning to postgraduate studies in soil science at Reading University and moving to Australia in 1988. Since 1989 Richard has worked in soil research and education. He is currently a senior research scientist with the Victorian Government (DEDJTR) based in Bendigo.

Danielle Measday spent a considerable amount of her childhood curled up inside a pillowcase pretending to be a dinosaur egg. Since that time she has become the Conservator of Natural Sciences for Museum Victoria. Danielle’s love of museum conservation began the first time she saw an X-Ray of a painting. She trained as an objects conservator at the University of Melbourne’s Masters of Cultural Material Conservation program, and then stepped sideways into the sciences and never looked back. Danielle is passionate about Natural History and works with collection managers, curators and researchers across zoology, palaeontology and geosciences to preserve the collections in good condition for the future. She tells the story of the pioneers of palaeontology Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope.

The Gaussian Ensemble performs Gaussian Rhapsody by The Laborastory

Chris is a theoretical particle physicist who now writes about science following the belief that even quantum theory can be communicated plainly. He presents Lost in Science on 3CR community radio and has been known to cook model universes live on stage.

Dr Clare Hampson is a trainee pathologist, and lecturer in pathology. She is the creator of award-winning Fringe Festival show A Window in Mime (2011), and has written and performed the Melbourne Fringe festival show Death and Faxes (2013) and Melbourne International Comedy Festival showsCleaver&Clag (2012), Clodhopper (2009) and Clodhopper: Miami (2010). She script advises for ABC TV show The Dr Blake Mysteries and is a regular performer and MC at The Laborastory, a Melbourne science storytelling night.

The Gaussian Ensemble performs Cauchy-craft by The Laborastory

Dr Katherine (Katie) Mack is a theoretical cosmologist. Her work focuses on finding new ways to learn about the early universe and fundamental physics using astronomical observations, probing the building blocks of nature by examining the cosmos on the largest scales. Throughout her career as a researcher at Caltech, Princeton, Cambridge, and now University of Melbourne, she has studied dark matter, black holes, cosmic strings, and the formation of the first galaxies in the Universe. Dr Mack is also an active online science communicator and is passionate about science outreach. As a science writer, she has been published by Slate, Cosmos, Sky & Telescope, Time.com, The Economist tech blog "Babbage", and other popular publications. She is active on Twitter as @AstroKatie and her website is www.astrokatie.com.

Teresa is an Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar who is currently working on a PhD aimed at developing a blood test to identify babies that will be born small, as well as examining patterns of fetal growth and their impact on birth outcomes, both with the aim of reducing stillbirth. As well as her passion for obstetrics, a small part of Teresa still wishes she was actually a musical theatre star instead of a doctor - and she has absolutely relished this chance to be in the mathematics choir!