Register to attend the AGM or appoint a proxy to attend in your place – registration and proxies can be submitted up to 1 hour prior to the start of the AGM.
We hope to see you there!
The Australian Science Communicators Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held virtually on Zoom NEXT WEDNESDAY, 29 November 2023 at 5PM AEDT | 4PM AEST | 4:30PM ACDT | 3:30PM ACST | 2PM AWST.
The AGM agenda is included below. The President’s Report and the Treasurer’s Report will be made available early next week.
Please fill in this form (https://forms.gle/c1xXfH6vt8x98GReA) to register to attend the AGM or appoint a proxy to attend in your place.
Our AGM is a key event in our annual calendar where we meet with our membership to report on our progress in the last financial year. This is also an opportunity for our membership to voice their concerns or suggestions and become more involved by participating in the election for positions in the ASC Executive Committee.
Please contact office@asc.asn.au if you have any questions.
We hope to see you there.
Date: 29 November 2023 Start time: 17:00pm AEDT
Tuesday, 12 December 2023;
5pm AEDT | 4:30pm ACDT | 4pm AEST | 3:30pm ACST | 2pm AWST
Join us for a magical members-only ASC End-of-Year Catch-up – a Christmas special networking event hosted by the wonderful Phil Dooley and Claire Harris
Revel in festive cheer as we bid farewell to 2023 and welcome the new year. Expect engaging conversations, breakout sessions, and the warmth of familiar and unfamiliar faces.
Be ready to light up the event with your aura —camera and audio on! And don’t forget a beverage to cheers with!
Exclusive to active ASC members. Please register with your ASC-associated email and full name.
Don’t miss this sparkling opportunity to celebrate the season ASC-style!
As our Annual General Meeting (AGM) gets closer, we’re looking to embark on a transformative journey in how our ASC Council operates. By shifting from the three legacy roles (President, Treasurer, Secretary) to a more tailored model, each member will be able to focus more practically on supporting a range of outputs aligned with our strategic vision. We hope this will create opportunities for more impactful involvement. This change is not just a structural adjustment; it’s a step towards a more effective, rewarding and engaging volunteer experience.
Introducing a new, flexible structure
Our new Council structure aims to offer a range of diverse roles, each focusing on specific outputs and functions, alongside general committee members. These still have the regular responsibilities of a not-for-profit committee, but are now more tailored to lead the next phase for the ASC.
As normal, during the AGM the membership will elect a president or co-presidents. After this, the membership elects members to sit on Council (not into specific roles). After the AGM, the President/s will work with the elected Council Members to fill the following roles:
Vice President (Treasurer)
Vice President (Science Communication Policy)
Secretary (Events)
Secretary (Awards)
Secretary (International Engagement)
General Members
Branches also have an ex officio seat on Council – meaning one member from the Branch is invited to join to represent their Branch.
This approach aims to allow for a more personalised involvement, aligning with your skills, interests, and time availability. Please get in touch if you wish to find out more about any of these roles.
Understanding the commitment
Committing to a role on Council might seem daunting, but we want to reassure you that it’s a manageable and flexible commitment. Members are expected to attend four meetings throughout the year, and to respond to email in a reasonable time frame. Beyond this, the time you dedicate will depend on your role and personal capacity. We value your contribution, no matter the size, and aim to ensure that your experience is rewarding without being overwhelming.
If you’re unsure and want to chat further or hear more before saying ‘yes’, get in touch and we’ll chat it through with you.
Why consider joining?
If you’re hesitant about volunteering, here’s why you should give it a thought:
Tailored involvement: Choose a role that suits your interests and time availability. You’re in control of your involvement level.
Flexible time commitment: With flexible responsibilities and increased support of a refreshed secretariat, we hope you won’t feel overburdened.
Personal growth: Gain skills and experience in a supportive environment. It’s a chance to grow professionally and personally.
Have impact: This is an opportunity to have a significant impact on the future of the ASC as we finalise the strategic plan and start plotting what the next phase of the organisation will look like.
Getting Involved
If you’ve RSVP’d for the AGM already, check your email for details on how to edit your form. Remember, this is about finding the right fit for all of us. If you’re interested in a position but are concerned about the commitment, reach out to us for a chat. We’re here to work with you and find a balance that suits your schedule and comfort level.
Fill in the form via the link above to:
Joining the ASC committee is an opportunity to be part of something impactful, with a commitment that respects your time and contributions. Whether you’re taking a small step or a giant leap, your involvement is valuable to us.
We are excited to present the program for the ASC Honours and Post-Graduate Research Symposium for 2023. This event is more than a showcase; it signifies our commitment to fostering confidence in our students and providing the community with a timely insight into contemporary research in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand.
We are also very excited that our host for the symposium will be Jo Savill, senior science communicator at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC).
START TIME: 21 November 2023
3pm AEDT | 2:30pm ACDT | 2pm AEST | 5pm NZDT | 1:30pm ACST | 12pm AWST
| 3:00pm AEDT | Symposium begins |
| 3:10pm AEDT | Communicating Science: Is it Time for a More Anthropological Approach? Chris Ellis (PhD student, The University of Sydney) There is an increasing pessimism of science communication as science attempts to define origins of the universe, life and consciousness. Science communication is essential in order to mobilise people to act against some of humanity’s most pressing problems, including climate change, but it may have trouble achieving this if it does not take a more anthropological approach. |
| 3:35pm AEDT | Musical NMR: Building a Molecular Ensemble Jake Willett (Masters of Science (Physics), The University of Melbourne) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a staple in the molecular imaging world and is the foundation of MRI. It is an inherently quantum mechanical phenomenon which is often hard to understand. HOWEVER, there is a connection between NMR and music: a more familiar topic, that may help in bridging the gap between the micro and macro world. |
| 4:00pm AEDT | Comparing COVID-19 Vaccine Information in Indonesian and Singaporean Online News Priscilla Seah (Master of Science Communication, ANU) Comparing how COVID-19 vaccine information was presented in two vastly different countries in terms of their COVID-19 management, secularity, and cultures. Did religion themes dominate, or were news media articles more scientific-based? What perspectives were emphasised? How did news media in these countries convince the public to take the vaccine and counter hesitancy? |
| 4:30pm AEDT | From 2D to 4D: Reconstructing a Giant Extinct Aussie Amphibian Jack O’Connor (PhD student, Monash University) Can 2D skeletal illustrations inform 4D locomotion animations? This talk outlines how I developed a novel procedure in 3D modelling software to recreate the morphology of one of Australia’s few described Jurassic vertebrate species; Siderops kehli. The resulting animated asset provides insight into the lifestyle of this giant Australian amphibian through the lens of science communication. |
| 4:55pm AEDT | Changing environmental behaviours, using ABC’s War on Waste as a case study Rachael Vorwerk (Master of Communication, RMIT) Non-preachy tone. Relatable contexts. Step-by-step how to’s. Targeting consumers, businesses and government. What exactly was it in ABC’s War on Waste that led to such widespread change in Australia? Learn about new insights and practical tips on how we can use communication strategies to change behaviour at scale. |
To enhance accessibility and promote ongoing learning, all presentations will be recorded and uploaded to the ASC YouTube channel. This serves two purposes: it keeps the broader community informed about the latest developments in our field, and it provides our students with a valuable platform to demonstrate their presentation skills—a key attribute in academic and professional environments.
Join us to engage with pioneering research and support the next generation of scholars.
Click here to register for the Zoom session.
We look forward to your participation in the symposium!
A/Prof Jen Martin, ASC national Vice President
At the end of September I had the great pleasure of attending the PCST Venice Symposium Science communication education and training: Challenges and strategies for research and academic institutions. Venice is a long way to go for a three-day symposium but having never come across an event before focused exactly on what my team does (teaching communication skills to scientists in an academic institution), my strong suspicion was that it would be worth making the effort to attend. And that definitely turned out to be the case. It was an absolute joy to spend three days with roughly 100 people from around the world who are deeply passionate about science communication education and training.
The symposium took place at Venice International University which is located on San Servolo island, about 10 minutes by boat (vaparetto) from Saint Mark’s Square in Venice. The island is tiny and very beautiful and used to be an asylum. These days it has a restaurant, café, lots of accommodation for students and other university visitors and a variety of teaching and meeting spaces. It also has some beautiful gardens and one of my favourite things was seeing people arrive each morning on the early vaparetto to walk their dogs in the gardens – presumably because there’s so little green space in Venice itself.
The first day of the symposium included a number of keynote presentations and roundtables including discussions about what research and academic institutions are doing to support researchers’ science communication and how these institutions can integrate science communication research and evaluation insights into practice and training. Day one finished with a visit to the glorious San Zaccaria church in Venice and a fascinating session on ‘The Art of Conversation and Conversation in Art’.
On the next day we broke into four working groups, each focused on a different aspect of the broader topic:
1: Supporting researchers’ public communication;
2: Recruiting science communication professionals and developing their competencies;
3: Evaluating and improving the quality of research communication;
4: Using science communication research results in institutional activities.
Each working group spent part of their time hearing presentations from members of the group and part of the time in discussion with the goal of coming up with key recommendations on their topic. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share my story of founding the science communication teaching program at the University of Melbourne including what my team does and some of the things we’ve learned along the way about how to establish and grow such a program. We also heard from many other people involved with amazing training programs and it was interesting (and more than a little sad) to discover just how common and widespread an experience it is for science communication education, training and research to be undervalued and insufficiently supported in universities and research institutions around the world.
On the last day each group presented their recommendations, and we had a fantastic whole-group discussion about our conclusions and what useful steps we could take to improve science communication education and training. The result is a statement to leaders of academic and research institutions worldwide which highlights the need for research and academic institutions to consider the strategic value of the public communication of science, and to mobilise support for these activities. The statement is going to be useful for anyone seeking institutional or local support for science communication and I’ll share with our ASC membership when it’s published.
Aside from the stunning location, of course the best thing about any conference is the people you meet and PCST Venice was no exception. In addition to catching up with some other wonderful Australian scicomm people (Jenni, Toss and Tullio), I met so many other scicomm educators, practitioners and researchers from around the world, many of whom I’ll definitely stay in contact with. Science communication education is a small field and I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with so many others who do work I think is exceptionally important and valuable.
Tom Carruthers, Co-President
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of representing the ASC at the STA Leaders Dialogue held at the Google Offices in Darling Harbour, Sydney.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsHad the opportunity to visit @google yesterday for the @ScienceAU Leadership Dialogue as the @auscicomm delegate. Lots of great discussion on policy wins and direction – and a great venue.
— Dr Tom Carruthers (@SciTJC) November 4, 2023
Here’s to another 12-months of positive change.#scicomm pic.twitter.com/k6CTVkRTiU
The event was a summary of STA’s activities and policy wins for the past 12 months. {I took some photos of the slides but missed their policy wins – I’ll update this soon with the detail}.
In preparation for this dialogue, the STA membership highlighted 10 priority areas to focus on in advocacy for 2023. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first three priorities are to do with investment in science and R&D, followed by a focus on re-industrialising Australia’s economy.
In the breakout session, I worked on this challenge with a small team and our discussion tried to articulate the sovereign risk posed to Australia should we not rapidly turnaround the decreased R&D funding trend. STA President, Prof. Mark Hutchinson raised his vision for Australia deliberately choosing to retire the idea of Australia being the lucky country, arguing that we should focus on becoming a hopeful one.
Priorities 5-7 relate to STEM education and supporting the STEM workforce. These are areas the ASC can strongly engage, and I will continue to find opportunities for our members to contribute their expertise and vision here. STEM education was a significant theme of the dialogue, with many STA organisational leaders highlighting the need for more STEM training and for specialist teachers. I am sure that we have members who can bolster this advocacy with case studies and impact evaluation to support the evidence base for this ask.
Priorities 8 through 10 focused on STA’s advocacy in championing diversity in STEM. This is where STA’s Superstars of STEM program, along with their support for initiatives such as Deadly Science feature.
I raised my concern that there wasn’t a specific aspiration to better address the key advocacy platform theme we’ve been sharing over the past 12 months – namely the underappreciation of science communication expertise, and the significant gap in capability in forming the evidence base for Australian communication and engagement programs. We will continue to engage STA over the coming months and years to attempt to better articulate these issues.
After the dialogue, there was a networking session. It was great to see past ASC President Wilson da Silva at the networking (who had some ideas about future awards), several Superstars of STEM, and colleagues from across the industry. We had some productive discussions, and I hope that it will translate into a couple of areas being better represented on our membership into the future.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThanks a wrap! A wonderful @ScienceAU leadership & strategic policy discussion with colleagues across the STEM sector gathering at our generous hosts @google. STEM in Aus is so hope filled. Thanks to @PaulFletcherMP and @DavidShoebridge for coming to say hi!! pic.twitter.com/ljsfApZDxg
— Prof Mark Hutchinson (@prof_hutchinson) November 3, 2023
The networking event was also a small chance to farewell Prof. Mark Hutchinson who’s three-year term is coming to an end in three weeks. We welcomed incoming President elect, Prof. Sharath Sriram, as he takes on the role. The ASC is glad to offer our engagement and support into the future.
We’re in full swing preparing for the Perth 2024 conference. By the time of this newsletter, our abstract submissions will be open, super-early bird registrations will be available in the coming days, and we have already secured our first sponsor. It’s all very exciting.
A little sooner than June, we have a networking gathering, and the student symposium. We extend a warm invitation to all members to participate and stay updated on the latest developments in the field of science communication. This year, we’ve broadened the scope to include PhD candidates, promising a diverse range of presentations.
Behind the scenes, the team are progressing with revisions to the membership portal. As communicated a week ago, now is the time to ensure your member details are up to date before we shut down to port to the new one. We hope to have further updates on progress next month.
With the year-end comes the Annual General Meeting (AGM). This gathering is a crucial opportunity for members to vote and engage on the range of changes we are hoping to enact in the next 12 months. We strongly encourage all eligible members to attend. For those unable to be present, please remember to submit your proxies.
Furthermore, if you have interest, we invite you to consider joining the National Council. Both of us are offering to continue the co-president role, and should the membership support that intention, we are aspiring to achieve a lot in what we expect to be our final 12-months in this role.
Finally, we would like to make a big welcome to Emma Berthold and Kate Patterson who have joined us in the Executive Office role as contractors for the immediate future. We are excited that we’ve been able to afford to have the support of them both, especially through this period of increased activity. Welcome aboard.
The Australian Science Communicators Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held virtually on Zoom on Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at 5pm AEDT | 4:30pm ACDT | 4pm AEST | 3:30pm ACST | 2pm AWST.
Please fill in this form (https://forms.gle/c1xXfH6vt8x98GReA) to:
Our AGM is a key event in our annual calendar where we meet with our membership to report on our progress in the last financial year. This is also an opportunity for our membership to voice their concerns or suggestions and become more involved by participating in the election for positions in the ASC Executive Committee.
If you are not able to attend the AGM, please appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf. The AGM agenda will be sent out a week prior to the event.
Please contact office@asc.asn.au if you have any questions.
We hope to see you there.
We’re thrilled to announce that the call for abstracts for the Australian Science Communicators Conference 2024 (ASC2024) is officially open! The main conference events will take place in Perth from 17th to 20th June 2024, with additional pre-conference and post-conference events scheduled for the 16th and 21st of June. This year’s theme is “Support, Connect, Grow” and we invite you to take this opportunity to share your expertise with fellow science communicators.
Location: Perth
Main Conference Dates: 17-20 June 2024
Pre and Post-Conference Events: 16 & 21 June 2024
Theme: Support, Connect, Grow
Choose from a range of formats to share your work and insights:
For those with an unconventional or innovative idea, please get in touch to explore its suitability for the conference.
Use this form to submit your abstracts and speaker bios.
Note: Your presentation or session can only be confirmed after you have acquired a conference ticket.
If you encounter difficulties with the abstract submission form, please email events @ asc.asn.au.
We are currently resolving some technical challenges with our registration platform. Keep an eye on your emails, the website and social media channels for updates on when registration will open this month.
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Don’t miss this chance to support, connect, and grow with peers and experts in the science communication field. We eagerly await your submissions and look forward to welcoming you to ASC2024 in Perth!
Best regards,
The ASC Team