Let's Talk SciComm

This week it was our huge pleasure to speak with Emily King, currently undertaking her PhD at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne. Her current project investigates whether insulin resistance develops as a result of mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle, using both mouse models and cell lines. The projected impact of these studies is to determine whether related conditions, s...

What better way to celebrate the 30th episode of Let’s Talk SciComm than continue our conversation with world-renowned climate scientist and climate science communicator, Professor David Karoly. This is part 2 of our conversation with David, so if you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, please go back and do that first! David is an honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne having reti...

This week it was our absolute honour to speak with Professor David Karoly, world-renowned climate scientist and climate science communicator. David is an honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne having retired in February 2022 from CSIRO in Australia, where he was a Chief Research Scientist in the CSIRO Climate Science Centre. He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change a...

Whether virtual or in person, conferences are without question one of the best ways to meet people and hear about new work in your field. Amongst other things, they can also be fantastic places to find jobs, collaborators, and thesis examiners. But to get the most out of attending a conference, it really pays to prepare before you go, to be brave once you get there and then do some follow-ups afte...

This week we’re thrilled to speak with one of the busiest (and most wonderful) scientists we know: Associate Professor Francine Marques. Francine is a Viertel Charitable Foundation and National Heart Foundation Fellow, and head of the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University. She has published >90 peer-reviewed papers in top journals such as Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Medici...

Given how low success rates are for many/most granting schemes, it’s incredibly useful for researchers to understand whether crowdfunding might be an appropriate way to raise funds for their work. And if it is, how you should go about running a successful crowdfunding campaign. So we invited Jonathan O’Donnell back to the show – you may remember we chatted with him in episode 22 about how to write...

We’re so excited to welcome you to Season Four of Let’s Talk SciComm, with new episodes now released every Tuesday. First up this season, we chat with Professor Andy Pask. Andy is a Professor in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne and Domain Leader for Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology within the School. His research focuses on evolution and development. His recent...

Got a ridiculously long to-do list? Feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff you need to get done? Time management is something we all struggle with and it can sometimes be difficult to make time to share our work with different audiences. This week Jen and Michael invite our wonderful UniMelbSciComm colleagues, Linden Ashcroft, Catriona Nguyen-Robertson and Graham Phillips for a 5-way chat about the...

This week, Jen and Michael were delighted to speak with Dr Michael Winlo. Michael is Managing Director at Emyria, a data-driven, drug development and clinical services company focused on improving care of patients with unmet needs. Emyria leverages the clinical evidence created with patients to launch and register novel drug development and treatment programs with global regulators. Michael is als...

Applying for grants is an experience common to all researchers and with success rates for many funding schemes extremely low, any advice to improve the chance of success for your application is very welcome! In this episode, Jen and Michael were thrilled to have the chance to chat with Jonathan O’Donnell and to pick his brains about how to write a successful grant application.a Jonathan is the rig...

This week we are so excited to catch up with one of our University of Melbourne Science Communication alumni who is doing amazing things in the world! Kate Cranney is a science communicator, scientist and visual artist. She combines these skills in her role as a Communications Advisor with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. Kate's background is diverse. She's climbed trees in Borneo, scal...

Writing a thesis is hard! It’s probably the longest document you’ve ever had to write, and the experience is often accompanied by a tendency to procrastinate and feelings of overwhelm and imposterism. This episode will help! Jen and Michael briefly talk about their thesis writing experiences and share their top tips. But most of the episode is filled with advice and tips from eight of our UniMelb...

This week, we couldn’t be more thrilled to chat with James McCaw, Professor of Mathematical Biology in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne. James studied physics before embarking on a research career in infectious diseases epidemiological modelling. One of his primary research interests over the past 15 years has been pandemic preparedness and response. Since Ja...

If you haven’t yet taken part in a speaking competition like the Three-minute thesis (3MT) or Famelab , what are you waiting for? You’ll gain so much by working out how to explain your research in a really short amount of time. This week Michael and Jen are joined by our wonderful colleague Catriona Nguyen-Robertson , who has had great success in a number of speaking competitions. Together, we giv...

Welcome back to Season Three of Let’s Talk SciComm – we couldn’t be more excited to be back talking about science communication with you. To launch our new season, we’re joined by the fabulous (and funny) Dr Jessamyn A. Fairfield, a lecturer in the School of Physics at the National University of Ireland Galway. She leads research in neuromorphic nanomaterials, physics education, and public engagem...

#MyScienceMay Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/my8e

Procrastination is of the biggest challenges many of us come up against in our day-to-day work. And it can certainly be a major barrier to effective science communication. Whether you’re trying to write a thesis, an assignment or a blog post, chances are you’ve found yourself delaying getting started. This week Jen and Michael share their experiences of procrastination and evidence-based advice on...

This week we’re so excited to introduce you to one of our former science communication students, Amy LeBlanc. Amy started off studying bird communication at the University of Melbourne but ended up graduating into full-time science communication instead! These days, Amy lives in Ghent, Belgium, where she is the Chief Editor of BioVox , an online news platform covering life sciences innovations. Sh...

We all know videos are one of the most popular and effective mediums to share science and that it’s possible to make great videos on your phone. Gone are the days of needing specialist, expensive equipment! But we can still all benefit from learning about how professionals approach making exciting, engaging videos. This week Michael and Jen are joined by our wonderful UniMelbSciComm colleague Dr G...

We’re thrilled to introduce you to photographer extraordinaire Doug Gimesy in this week’s episode. Doug is a professional conservation and wildlife photojournalist who focuses on Australian issues. A Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), his clients include National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, bioGraphic, Australian Geographic, Audubon, as well various masth...

In this episode, Michael and Jen are joined by our wonderful UniMelbSciComm colleague Dr Linden Ashcroft to discuss why editing is such an important skill. We all agree that allowing sufficient time to edit our writing is essential if we want to produce clear, concise and easy-to-read writing. Together we explore how we all learned to edit our writing and the different approaches we’ve learned alo...

We can’t wait for you to meet Dr Catherine Wheller on this week’s episode. Catherine has had a wonderfully diverse career and is currently the Communications Manager at the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF). The NYSF is a not-for-profit organisation that runs a number of programs to encourage young people in their passion for science. Catherine is an experienced science communicator, and higher...

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘Publish or perish’. But what about the more recent maxim ‘Be visible or vanish’? Regardless of your career stage, there are many advantages to having a professional online presence: it will bring new opportunities, connections and visibility. But it can be hard to know where and how best to invest your time and energy when it comes to social media. In this episode, Mich...

Welcome to Season Two of Let’s Talk SciComm! We’re thrilled to introduce you to our first guest for this season, Dr Shane Huntington OAM. Shane is 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 20 years. He is the host and producer...

On the outside you appear confident, composed and on top of your game. But on the inside, you are wracked with self-doubt. You feel like a fraud and as though someone is about to tap you on the shoulder and ask you what you think you’re doing. You’re sure you’re not good enough, experienced enough or smart enough to be doing what you’re doing. This week Jen and Michael chat about the Imposter Expe...