In this bulletin
Track down great examples of Australia/US science collaborations, and Australian scientists attending the AAAS
Alert you to a Women in Science summit to be held in Parliament House, Canberra in the first half of 2011
Flag some key dates for prizes, media training for scientists, and other activities in 2011
Report briefly on developments at Science in Public – we’re looking for experienced science communicators to join our team
Australia US science
We are contributing to two promotions of Australian science in the USA in February.
The first is assisting the Commonwealth Department of Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research with a US/Australian science showcase for publication by early February.
For this series of information sheets we are looking for examples of
- great collaborations; eg Skymapper, Parkes (CSIRO/NASA), CSIRO and DuPont, Bushfire CRC, CSIRO/BoM/NOAA, marsupial genomes, food security and biocontrol etc.
- Australian scientists in leadership roles in the USA eg Elizabeth Blackburn, Richard Gibbs, Bruce Stillman, Terry Tao, Rodney Brooks
- US scientists in leadership roles in Australia; eg Penny Sackett, Patricia Vickers-Rich, Brian Schmidt, Jerry Adams etc
- Australian early-career scientists with great results in the USA and vice versa
- unsung (from a US perspective) Australian science achievements impacting on US society: eg bionic ear, cervical cancer vaccines, Nulka, fast reliable WiFi, cotton varieties, CSF etc
The second activity is a social event for science journalists attending the AAAS conference in Washington DC from 17 to 21 February. We are keen to identify Australian scientists attending the event who would like to be introduced to some of the world’s leading science reporters.
Women in Science and Engineering Summit
The National Commissions in Australia for UNESCO and UNIFEM are working with FASTS – the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies – on a summit to be held in Parliament House in Canberra in the first half of 2011.
The summit will explore what Australia can, and should, do to improve the status of women in science and engineering – in particular encouraging young women to stay in science past PhD into career positions.
Science in Public is assisting with the management of the forum. If you or your colleagues would like more information in the New Year please drop me an email.
Science prizes, media training and other dates
We will again be managing the L’Oréal For Women in Science program in 2011. Nominations will open on 1 April.
Nominations for Fresh Science will open earlier – mid February. For 2011 we are exploring options for State semi-finals before the main event.
We will be holding media training sessions for scientists in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney with the first course on 18 January in Sydney – dates and details at scienceinpublic.com.au/training.
And in July, Melbourne will host a large earth sciences conference – the IUGG (International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics). We are looking for ideas to help us reach the public on the themes of air, fire, earth and water – understanding our planet in all its moods (http://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/category/iugg)
About Science in Public
Science in Public is a science communication consultancy based in Melbourne. I’m the creative director and we now have a team of six including Tim Thwaites – one of Australia’s most experienced science writers. 2010 has been a big year for us with a new office, and some great clients including L’Oréal, the PM’s Prizes team at Questacon, an Australia-China science showcase, media support for a couple of Nature papers on quantum computing and immunology, and conferences on global health, nanotech, and physics.