The Laborastory

Viviane received her PhD in biochemistry from La Trobe University after studying proteins found on mitochondria in human cells. This involved growing tiny, microscopic crystals and shooting them with X-ray beams at the Australian Synchrotron. As a science writer, Viviane has written about everything from the atomic to the astronomical, but one of her favourite topics remains the weird and wonderful world of microbes.

Karin is a third culture kid, or maybe a fifth culture kid, depending on how you count. Born in Senegal (that’s in West Africa) to Dutch parents, raised in America, married to a Spaniard, and living in Australia, she speaks 4.5 human languages and at least as many computer languages. She has developed mission control software for a NASA subcontractor, managed a team of Brazilian, Russian, and Kiwi software developers before there was Skype, worked in an office inside the security perimeter of a nuclear weapons facility, and eventually found her way back to a pretty normal academic job involving (unsurprisingly) computers and languages in Melbourne. She’s working on acquiring the nuances of her fifth (and a half) human language, Australian, and a sixth: the language of biology.

Dr Aaron Wagen is a trainee in Neurology, and loves all things brains, arts, and sciences, but is particularly thrilled when those things combine. Outside of working as a doctor, he has written and performed in comedic plays and live art pieces in the Melbourne Fringe Festival, nearly completed a Masters in Neuroscience and is an expert at spontaneous meal creation, always named by the dominant ingredient and the word “surprise”. You will probably know him best as one of the founders of a little known, but entirely excellent, science storytelling night in Melbourne called the Laborastory.

Alice is an eye researcher at the University of Melbourne. She graduated in 2016 from the University of Sydney with a neuroscience PhD. She researches diseases of the eye and is fascinated by the nose. Her favourite smells are gasoline, musk sticks and hot cheese toasties.

Sophie is a Marine scientist from New Zealand. She previously studied glow in the dark scallops to help make NZ scallop fishery more sustainable. Now here in Melbourne, she teaches students of ages ranging from prep to university about varying topics from weather science and clouds in a bottle to sustainability in engineering.

She still likes to play in rock pools and collect shells at the beach though!!

In the future she’s tossing up whether to become famous, get back into fisheries science or keep getting people excited about science.

Tom is a science communicator working at CERES, where his job involves trying to figure out exactly how sad to make primary school kids about climate change. On the side he designs board games, does comedy, and tries to figure out exactly how sad to be about climate change.

Annette is a mature age PhD student at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, who defected to science after many years as a dispatcher for the ambulance service in Melbourne. She now spends her days investigating strange proteins and mechanisms of cell death, while trying (sometimes in vain) to keep up socially with the significantly younger students in the lab. Annette’s dreams include sampling as many craft beers as she can before her liver gives up, travelling to every continent in the world (two to go!), and completing her PhD before she hits retirement age.

Matthew is an Accredited Practising Dietician who worked in Perth for several years as a clinical dietician, before relocating to Melbourne to commence a PhD at Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute. His PhD project is investigating the effects of a processed diet on gut homeostasis and the contribution that these changes make to the development of diabetic kidney disease.

He is a regular science presenter at Laneway Learning in Melbourne and has run science classes during National Science Week and Melbourne Knowledge Week. In 2015, he travelled to Tokyo to present initial findings from his PhD studies at the 12th International Symposium on the Maillard Reaction. In 2016, he presented at the Dietician’s Association of Australia National Conference as part of the Early Career Research Showcase where he received a Highly Commended New Conference Presenter Award.

Toni Stevens is the Chief of Staff at Melbourne-based science PR firm, Science in Public. She's been on the Australian Science Communicator's Victorian committee for four years. And she likes planting trees.

Jess Moir is a Melbourne comedian who regularly performs at Political Asylum. She has two kids and lets them mix bi-carb soda with vinegar whenever they want. Jess has lived overseas, including in Nigeria, where she learned more than she wanted to about Ebola.