Nerves are a completely normal part of giving a talk and as you’ve probably heard many times – nerves are a good thing! Feeling nervous means you care about this presentation which will help you to do a great job. But nerves can also be very unsettling and even completely debilitating. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to help manage your nerves. In this episode, Michael and Jen share their advice on what you can do before and during a talk to get your nerves under cont...
Mar 27, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 8
This week we had a fascinating conversation with Dr Graham Phillips focused on how to talk about controversial or divisive science topics – like aliens. Graham is a much-loved Australian science communicator and journalist and has plenty of experience communicating about tricky topics, especially when he was the host and a producer-reporter on ABC TV’s science program Catalyst. Graham began his career as a scientist (he has a PhD in astrophysics) before quitting to become science journalist/broa...
Mar 20, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 7
This week we had the great pleasure of talking with Dr Josh Chu-Tan who until very recently was the Business Development Manager for the College of Health and Medicine (CHM) based in the ANU Office of Business Engagement and Commercialisation as well as a Research Fellow at JCSMR with the Clear Vision Research Group. Josh completed his PhD in 2019 and was hired as a postdoc and lecturer in Medical Physiology by the ANU Medical School. Since his PhD, he has published 16 papers with 6 as first aut...
Mar 13, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 6
This week we had an absolute blast speaking with Christian Williams, who is an expert teacher in Melbourne, Australia. He has been recognised nationally and internationally for his expertise as a National Excellence in Teaching Award Winner, Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize and a Finalist for Young Australian of the Year. At Mentone Girls’ Grammar School, Christian manages the award-winning Enterprise Academy, a world leader in educating, inspiring and empowering young women for a better wo...
Mar 06, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 5
This week we loved catching up with award-winning science communicator, marine biologist and graphic designer Dr Tullio Rossi. As founder of the science communication agency "Animate Your Science", he helps researchers tell their story to the world. His engaging video animations and eye-catching graphics make science understandable for everyone, reaching millions of people around the world, thereby creating a real-life impact. You can follow Tullio and learn more about his work here: https://twi...
Feb 27, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 4
This week we had a lot of fun chatting with, and learning from, Dr Jarrod McKenna. Jarrod is a reproductive biologist turned zookeeper turned science educator and has had quite a mixture of jobs. As a PhD student at Monash University, he investigated early pregnancy and assisted reproduction in the world’s only known menstruating rodent: The Egyptian Spiny Mouse. He then went on to work as a zookeeper at Zoos Victoria and as the Communications Officer at the National Youth Science Forum. These d...
Feb 20, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 3
This week we were so fortunate to talk with Andrew Kelly, environmentalist, convenor of The Waterway Network, and former Yarra Riverkeeper. Among other things, Andrew has worked as an editor, publisher, spokesperson, advocate and author. He played a key role in formulating the formulation the Yarra River Protection (Willip-gin Birrarung murron) Act which was passed unopposed. He has also written a number of books for children including Peregrines in the City, Willam: A Birrarung Story and The Ac...
Feb 13, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Happy New Year and welcome to another season of Let’s Talk SciComm! We’re excited to be back for another year of podcasting about our very favourite topic – science communication. And we’re launching Season Six with a bang, talking with Associate Professor Suzie Sheehy. Suzie is an accelerator physicist who specialises in novel particle accelerators and beam dynamics, with a current focus on medical applications. Her research at The University of Melbourne investigates novel particle therapy acc...
Feb 06, 2023•31 min
For our final episode of the season, we were absolutely thrilled to speak with Christine Burns. Christine (BA Psych, PG Dip Sport Bus Mngt, MIPPA) is the CEO and Co-Founder of WALT Institute. As a former elite athlete in hockey for New Zealand, she has over 20 years of coaching, sport psychology and performance expertise which she brings to the global arena of Authentic Leadership. Typically, she works with individuals and teams in STEMM to provide the strategies to bust through the status quo, ...
Dec 19, 2022•30 min•Season 5Ep. 8
This week we absolutely loved talking with Isolde Gottwald (AKA Issie), an exchange student from the University of Vienna who spent semester 2 this year studying with us at the University of Melbourne. Listen to the podcast to hear how we got to know Issie! Within her degree, Issie is particularly interested in environmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Out of her deep curiosity for science and the practice of science, she worked as a student assistant and intern at various research in...
Dec 12, 2022•28 min•Season 5Ep. 7
This week we had the enormous pleasure of speaking with the one-and-only Professor Natalie Hannan. Natalie is an ARC Future Fellow, the Associate Dean, Diversity and Inclusion in the Faculty Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and leads the Therapeutics Discovery and Vascular Function in Pregnancy Group, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Melbourne. She is passionate about developing new approaches to combat major complication of pregnancy, especially preec...
Dec 05, 2022•30 min•Season 5Ep. 6
This week we had the great pleasure of chatting with Dr Malini Devadas about all things writing. After completing her PhD at the Australian National University in the 1990s, Malini did a postdoc and then realised that she enjoyed the writing part of the job more than the lab work! In 2004 she started working as a professional editor, becoming accredited in 2009. In 2013 Malini launched MD Writing and Editing, working as a trainer and editor to help academics and medical professionals get publish...
Nov 28, 2022•28 min•Season 5Ep. 5
This week we loved talking with Dr Kylie Quinn, who is a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow and leads the Ageing and Immunotherapies Group at RMIT University. Her group is developing ways to improve immune responses in older people during vaccination and new cell-based cancer therapies. Immune cells from older people become more difficult to activate, so her team are identifying factors that limit activation with the aim of targeting these factors to improve immune health. Kylie has received a nu...
Nov 21, 2022•29 min•Season 5Ep. 4
This week we loved chatting with two more researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN): Associate Professor Megan Teychenne and Dr Niamh Mundell. Megan’s PhD is in Behavioural Epidemiology and she’s currently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at IPAN. For more than 15 years Megan has investigated the role of health-related behaviours (e.g. physical activity, sedentary behaviour) in the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions (particular...
Nov 14, 2022•30 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This week we’re so pleased to have had the opportunity to talk with Deakin University researchers Dr Helen Macpherson and Sara Dingle about a topic we’re fascinated by: the intersection of mental health and nutrition. Helen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), at Deakin where she co-leads the Exercise and Nutrition for Brain Health group. She has a background in cognitive neuroscience and completed her postdoctoral training at Swinburne Univers...
Nov 07, 2022•28 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Welcome back to season 5 of Let’s Talk SciComm! We’re thrilled to be sharing another season of great episodes with you and we know you’re going to love this first episode with the one-and-only Sue Pillans. Sue is a marine scientist, artist, children’s author/illustrator and graphic recorder who specialises in creative and visual communications. As a graphic recorder Sue draws out ideas with people, teams and organisations to visually capture and convey discussions, information and concepts. She ...
Oct 31, 2022•33 min•Season 5Ep. 1
For our final episode in Season Four, we wanted to talk about another major barrier many of us experience to being able to do the work we care about: good mental health. So we asked our colleague Professor Sandra Radovini if she would have a chat with us. Sandra is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Mindful, the Victorian state-wide Child & Adolescent Mental Health teaching and training unit for professionals working with children, young people and their families. Mindful is part of t...
Sep 26, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 8
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, such as Type 2 Diabetes, can be managed with novel, muscle-specific therapies. Emily is a passionate ...
Sep 19, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 7
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 retired in February 2022 from CSIRO in Australia, where he was a Chief Research Scientist in the CSIRO C...
Sep 12, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 6
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 and climate variability. Professor Karoly was the Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub ...
Sep 05, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 5
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 afterwards. This week Michael and Jen chat with our wonderful colleague Dr Linden Ashcroft about our str...
Aug 29, 2022•33 min•Season 4Ep. 4
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 Medicine and Circulation , and has secured $7 million in competitive funding. Francine has won 25 awards i...
Aug 22, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 3
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 successful grant applications. And Jonathan is the perfect person to chat with about crowdfunding b...
Aug 15, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 2
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 work is centered on the reproductive system and particularly the influence of hormones and endocrine...
Aug 08, 2022•32 min•Season 4Ep. 1
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 tips and tricks we've learned along the way about how to make time for the things that really matter...
Jun 29, 2022•32 min•Season 3Ep. 8
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 also a Director at Linear Clinical Research - Perth’s only dedicated early phase cancer and clinical tr...
Jun 22, 2022•30 min•Season 3Ep. 7
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 right person to seek advice from because in his job, he helps people get funding for their research. To...
Jun 15, 2022•33 min•Season 3Ep. 6
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, scaled volcanoes in Papua New Guinea, pulled snakes out of traps in the Simpson Desert, and counted turt...
Jun 08, 2022•28 min•Season 3Ep. 5
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 SciComm alumni who have recently written theses. They’ve been right where you are now and have so mu...
Jun 01, 2022•25 min•Season 3Ep. 4
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 January 2020, he has supported the Australian government's response to COVID-19 through membership of ...
May 25, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 3
