Feature Interview with Lisa Bailey, ASC President

Lisa Bailey reflects on her experiences working in Science Communication (SciCom)

Where has SciCom taken you Lisa?

Weird places I didn’t expect SciCom to take me – that time in 2011 when I was 5 months pregnant, in Coober Pedy with a solar car, holding 3.4kg of solid gold that is the Melbourne Cup (that was really a thing that happened – the Melbourne Cup was on tour and that coincided with our visit to Coober Pedy with the solar car challenge) (see image).

So why did you choose to study science?

I was one of those kids who was always interested in science. I was a teenager in the 90s, so I basically wanted to be Scully from the X-files.

Looking back now, what has been the best part of your career in SciComms?

The friends I made along the way…. really, I have worked with some amazing, funny and talented people. One of the things I’m really proud of is SCINEMA International Science Film Festival. I started producing that at The Royal Institution of Australiain 2016, and by 2018 it had grown to be one of the largest National Science Weekevents in the country, with over 500 screenings around the nation. I love it because it was designed specially to make it easy for anyone to take part in science week, and the range of films we were able to curate was always so varied.  

And where has your career led you?

All over! In the literal sense it’s been wonderful in that I’ve had the opportunity to work both in the UK and Australia. I’ve been able to follow the World Solar Car Challengefrom Darwin to Adelaide, run SCINEMAin cinemas all over the country, been in the Prime Minister’s Office at the PM’s Science Prizes.

I started out doing a lot of public engagement programming – loads and loads of science events. So many. The last few years I’ve gone from science writing and film festival management, to teaching academic writing and teaching a University SciComm course, to Exhibition Manager at MOD at UniSA, a new museum in Adelaide.

What excites you most about your work?

I still love learning, and I think for any science communicator that’s obviously a huge part of what you are doing – being able to dig in deep to a field or topic, or even just an individual study, to be able to parse the relevance for your target audience. I love being able to talk with researchers about their work, what excites them about it and how they hope it can make a difference in the world. That, and then seeing your program in action and someone ‘getting it’ – even if it’s not for the reason you thought! I always use the story of a nanotechnology event I ran years ago now, where a truck driver had heard me speaking on the radio about the event that day and had driven several hundred k’s to the event that evening. Afterwards he came up and thanked me, he enjoyed the event because his son was studying nanotechnology and he had no idea what it was, but now he felt he understood it a bit more and could have a conversation with his son about it.

What advice do you have for anyone considering a career in SciComms?

Join ASC! I have to say that as President, but honestly, I have found the network and personal friendships I’ve made through my involvement in ASCso beneficial. It really helps to be able to bounce ideas off people with a vast array of experiences in dealing with institutions, audiences, difficult topics, funding challenges. On a practical level it’s also a great network through which to find jobs when they’re shared through the list or Facebook group. I also say now that for anyone who is interested in science communication there’s no reason to wait for it to be your paying job to get experience. There are so many avenues for students to gain experience in SciCom through programs like FameLab, Fresh Science, 3MTand all the other various avenues for developing your communication skills. Gaining experience through a range of avenues can prove to an employer that you do have what they’re looking for, even if you’re moving into SciCom from another field. If you’ve kept a food blog running, or managed social media for a club through uni, or set up your own podcast reviewing Netflix shows, it shows that you’re familiar with the technology and the principles of scheduling, producing and building and nurturing an audience or community.

And lastly, what are some of your greatest challenges that you’ve overcome in your SciCom career?

It took me a while to value the skills that I brought to a workplace or project as a science communicator. Some things that we take for granted, like considering things from the audience perspective first, really are not the frame that organisations or academics bring! So understanding what I was good at, and how that adds value for the teams I work with, has been something I’ve only really started to understand properly in the last few years. I had a massive case of imposter syndrome when I was asked to start lecturing in Science Communication!

I think one of the other challenges has always been that gap between what you’d love to be able to do, or what you know is most likely to work, and the resources and funding you have available to make it happen. That’s not unique to SciCom, it’s common in any scientific endeavour really. And tight resources can lead to some really creative thinking.

2018 ASC grant recipient Linda Hales reports on her recent trip to the lab tours in Toulouse

How do you get an arachnophobe to stand in a small room next to a big glass container of spiders? One way to lure them in is by simply saying there’s interesting research being done in that room. That, combined with the fact I knew I wouldn’t hear the French scientist properly if I stood in the hallway, is how I found myself squeezed up next to a table in a little room with a collection of international journalists and a bunch of social spiders.

The lead researcher explained that unlike most of the thousands of species of spiders in the world, social spider species coexist peacefully (painting pictures of webs metres wide, filled with tens of thousands of happy arachnids, while I suppressed the urge to madly brush down my crawling skin). But scientists don’t understand the drivers of much of their behaviour. Even when they’re starving, why don’t they turn to cannibalism? Why do solitary spiders ‘lose’ their early social tendencies? Why are social spiders only found in tropical and subtropical areas? Combined with a deep shame at the thought of admitting to being an Australian zoology grad afraid of a crawling creature, it was fascinating enough to keep me still.

This was just one of many research groups we were introduced to during the laboratory tours at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition: we watched a little bee working out the fastest way to fly between a garden of ‘flowers’ holding sugar solutions; saw some robots that have been programmed to school like fish; tried a virtual reality tour of a termite nest; and were introduced to the famous, clever, brainless, slime mould (or the “blob,” which 2018 European Science Writer Award finalist Nathaniel Herzberg wrote about for Le Monde).

The lab tours were part of attending the European Conference of Science Journalists and European Science Open Forumin Toulouse, in July 2018.

The Pink City was absolutely buzzing, although sweltering—full of scientists, journalists, and people shouting at TVs screening the World Cup. The week had kicked off with the journalist conference on a Sunday, which included discussions on science journalism in an authoritarian context, the strengths and limitations of philanthropically funded journalism, whether true independence can be maintained with increasing numbers of science journalists also working as science communicators, and more.

I spent Monday to Saturday at ESOF—writing about thediscovery of the first complete skull of the mastodon species Gomphotherium pyrenaicum(for Cosmos), and sitting in on discussions ranging from cities of the future to science communication in the Nordics, and whether poetry can help people connect with science on a more emotional level. I met some wonderful people who I hope to see again at conferences in the future.

Although there were inevitable discussions on the challenges facing science journalism and science communication that flowed over from conference sessions into social events (put a bunch of science journalists together and they’ll keep talking science and journalism) there was a persisting thread underneath these. For better or worse, most people at events like these are addicted to the area. In one breath there’s funding cuts to science or newsrooms, but in the next is what everyone is investigating now. You’ll hear the reasons they’re still in their field: chasing stories, digging into studies, questioning findings, talking to interesting people. Asking questions, and always learning something new. It’s enough to keep anyone in a room with spiders.

Click here for 2018 ASC grant recipients

A short and sweet call out for contacts

It’s reached that point in the year where you’ve blinked and a couple of months have already passed.  Students are heading back across the country and, and it’s a good time to set some plans on what ASC could focus on in 2019.  I’d like to focus on our membership, and particularly on what ASC can offer for students across disciplines from science, engineering, media, journalism, education and the arts (and apologies to any I’ve missed in that list).

There are so many opportunities for students to develop their skills in sci-com by acting as student ambassadors, contributing to institutional blogs and video channels, or participating in any of the amny competitions and development opportunities like fresh science, Fame Laband 3 Minute Thesis.  I think it would be great if ASC was able to provide support in the lead up and follow on from these types of events for students keen to continue developing their network in science communication.

So I’d like to hear from you!

If you are

• Interested in supporting a student ASC chapter at your institution
• Involved in co-ordinating sci-com opportunities for students (eg 3MT)

Please get in touch with me at lisa.bailey@unisa.edu.au to discuss how we might best initiate this – or let me know if it’s already happening well in some areas!

Thanks
Lisa