Author Archives: Jesse Shore

About Jesse Shore

Dr Jesse Shore has over 28 years of experience as a science communicator. Currently he works through his business, Prismatic Sciences, to develop science based programs for various audiences and media. Jesse aims to make science meaningful to a variety of audiences. He places science in a cultural context, explores ideas from diverse and unusual perspectives and flavours it with a bit of fun. His current focus is to develop science based exhibitions to suit public library spaces. Jesse is well placed in science communication in Australia. During his years of experience he has created exhibitions, public events, a science festival and worked with other communications media. He was an exhibition project leader during the building of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and their senior curator of sciences for 20 years. Jesse has served or is serving on state coordinating committees for National Science Week and for the Australian Science Communicators (ASC) and is currently the President of ASC. He is also on working groups relating to the recent Inspiring Australia Report.

ASC conference – a social happening

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Cocktails in UTS’s new Great Hall? Café Scientific in a pub? Book Launch event of The Genome Generation? Pre-conference drinks with sci-comm up-and-comings?

Yes to all! The conference social calendar is now in place and we even offer a choice on the Tuesday evening.

First off is a relaxed pre-conference get-together at the Belgian Beer Café in the Rocks on Sunday 26 February from 6pm. Will Grant is organising this event. Reply to his tweet @willozap if attending.

Science Communication Tweetup pre #asc2012. 6pm, 26th Feb, Belgian Beer Cafe The Rocks (See Map Here) ping @willozap if attending!

Get dressed up on Monday 27 February for a cocktail function from 6-8pm at the newly refurbished Great Hall of the University Technology Sydney. All registered conference delegates are invited to this convivial gathering. Arrive on time to mingle and relax. There will be a couple of brief presentations and then some more mingling, etc. UTS has a lot to show off – you’ll hear about the exciting major rejuvenation of the university and its neighbourhood, its new science facilities and novel partnerships in communicating science. The Great Hall is in the Tower building on Broadway in Ultimo, a short walk or a quick bus ride from the conference venue.

Tuesday 28 February offers two events from 6-8pm for different tastes. In fact your choice of which one to go to may be influenced by where you want to eat afterwards.

  • The science team at the ABC with support from NETS and Rod Lamberts, our conference convenor, are putting on a light-hearted conversation about seriously communicating science, and the best part is that’s in a pub (location TBA).
  • The second event is in restaurant rich Glebe (a short bus or taxi ride from the Masonic Centre). Elizabeth Finkel’s latest book, The Genome Generation, will be launched at Gleebooks on Glebe Point Road. The first 20 delegates to RSVP will get free entry (otherwise $10). Drinks are available. Elizabeth will be in conversation with Wilson da Silva, editor-in-chief of Cosmos Magazine. See http://www.gleebooks.com.au/default.asp?p=events/events4_htm#Elizabeth_Finkel.

More information about how to RSVP for the events will come soon.

More details are being added to the conference program and many sessions have powerful panels of potent presenters. The sooner you register the quicker you can reserve your place for sessions and events that have limited numbers.

So get organised and get registered – go to http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/register/ to make it happen.

Jesse Shore
National President

Speed mentoring at ASC conference

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The ASC conference is less than six weeks away and additional program details and events keep coming in. We will announce our line up great social events for the Monday and Tuesday nights very soon. The speed mentoring session on day 1 of the conference is looking amazing with 15 mentors to be on hand. ASC members have often requested a mentoring program and this experimental format will be our first step toward providing that service.

Speed mentoring offers early career science communicators a chance to get tips and cautionary tales from those who have spent years honing their skills and advancing the craft. Mentors include:

  • Karl Kruszelnicki (aka Dr Karl – author, television and radio personality, Sleek Geek Week presenter, etc)
  • Adam Spencer (Dr Karl’s partner in the Sleek Geek Week science roadshow and television program, and ABC local radio breakfast announcer)
  • Wilson da Silva (editor-in-chief of Cosmos magazine)
  • Paul Willis (formerly of ABC TV’s Catalyst and now Director of RiAus)
  • Bernie Hobbs (broadcaster extraordinaire and formerly on the New Inventors program)
  • Elizabeth Finkel (award winning science journalist and book author)
  • John Curran (General Manager, CSIRO Communications)
  • Susannah Eliott (CEO, Australian Science Media Centre)
  • and seven other diversely experienced long-term achievers.

Everyone is invited although the target audience for this session are students and those relatively new to communicating science. We don’t want to get too crowded so we can to ensure everyone talks with several mentors.

I’ll be stage-managing the session (less formal than chairing or facilitating and more polite than saying shepherding). I’ve gathered the key ingredients and you folks are the reagents so let’s see what we can mix up on the day. Let me know whether you want to attend so I can plan out this experiment.

You can still register for the conference and it is great value. The program is bursting at the seams with great topics, issues, professional development, science-art, and all of Australia’s Chief Scientists. Drop me a line if you have yet to register as that helps with our planning.

Jesse Shore
Speed mentor wrangler

ASC National Conference 2012 – Dec 2011 update

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The full program for the National Conference is now on the conference website, http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/. Increasingly detailed information will be added regularly to the site.

The early bird deadline has been extended to 15 January 2012. As usual ASC members get a significant discount to the non-members rate.

The conference will be at Sydney Masonic Centre from 27-29 February 2011.

The sign of a good conference program is when it is difficult to choose between the parallel sessions. I’ll be torn between competing interests for every session and once again wish I could be in two or more places at once.

Day 1

  • Opening keynote: Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist will open the conference and be the first plenary speaker.
  • Before and after lunch: an overview of Inspiring Australia followed by an in-depth look at regional outcomes
  • After lunch: State Chief Scientists will feature in a plenary and then in parallel sessions.

Day 2

  • Plenary: Careers in science communicating– hear about career possibilities and resources.
  • Plenary: Sophisticated Social Media Use & Science – continuing insights into how to use a range of rapidly evolving communication channels to communicate science (and maybe make a buck?).
  • Plenary: The NBN and how to use it – a science communication perspective of nation changing technology.

Day 3

  • Plenary: Three astronomers walked into a bar…Features a Video of interview with Brian Schmidt and David Malin, astronomical photographer – an illustrated talk– in an exclusive for the conference, Brian Schmidt, the 2011 Nobel Prize winner for Physics, is interviewed on video by Rod Lamberts. The discussion will interweave winning a major science prize with effective science communication of astronomy.
    • Plenary: “Discoveries Need Dollars: Protect research”: A case study of a successful science advocacy campaign– explore how heads of science advocacy groups represent their members’ interests to politicians and government departments.
    • Plenary: Science to Policy: War Stories from the Heart of the Action – the big wigs will be prodded to tell all as they are quizzed about the role and funding for science communication in their patches.
    • Plenary: What’s the Buzz? What’s new in Science Television – get the goods on science for the small screen.

Other parallel session topics include (partial listing; PD means session has a professional development focus):
*       Speed mentoring (PD)
*       The consultancy game – a follow-on from the careers plenary
*       Making a communication plan – a seven step process (PD)
*        engaging with the media (PD)
*       Philanthropy, fundraising and science communication
*       Beyond evaluation (PD)
*       Science as theatre
*       Putting the ‘confer’ back into conferences (PD)
*       The latest in research in science communication
*       Science and art sessions and exhibitions
*       War on science

Website: The conference website is http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/.
Online registration is active. See http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/register/.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC corporate members – meeting with Scitech

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Interest is growing for organisations to become corporate members of the ASC. While I was in Perth for the 2011 ASC AGM I took the opportunity to meet with the management of one of our most recent new corporate members, Scitech.

Scitech is Perth’s and WA’s state-wide active and progressive science centre. Alan Brien, the director of Scitech, led the discussion which ranged over the recent history of Scitech and its key activities in science communication.

Some of the main points included that Scitech is the lead state institution for overseeing Inspiring Australia activities in WA. Alan’s team gave an update on developments of ScienceNetworkWA, http://sciencewa.net.au/, its online connection to science activity in the state.

We explored a few ways that Scitech and the ASC could work more closely together, starting off with the National Conference. I look forward to seeing some of the ideas being realised soon.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC AGM outcomes

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The first ASC AGM held in Perth was well attended and lively with discussion of many matters. Most of those present offered comments and questions which revealed the insight and enthusiasm of ASC WA members.

In brief, the main reports of this meeting held on 30 November were:

From the President:

  • Progress toward planning the 2012 national conference
  • The activity of the branches with ACT, SE-Qld and SA being especially active and WA running the enormous Astrofest event (attended by 3000 people)
  • Networking with the Tall Poppy Campaign and supporting science communication events run by other organisations
  • Maintaining contact with the National Inspiring Australia team and some of their state and territory representatives
  • Upgrades to the ASC website and news of major improvements planned for 2012.

From the Treasurer:

  • The Association remains in a sound financial position
  • Membership dues remain at $88 for an individual membership for a full year (dues were last raised 5 years ago) and student membership at 40% of the individual rate
  • Branches will receive capitation at 10% of the dues income from their members and up to another 10% for special projects on submission to the Executive;

The main outcomes were:

  • Election of 2012 ASC President: there was one nomination for President and I was elected.
  • Motion to amend the Constitution: the meeting approved the proposal for a minor change in wording to specifically mention that branches may have rules. The previous clause only mentioned branches having Constitutions.

The meeting ended promptly at 7.15pm and the David Ellyard’s third consecutive end-of-year science trivia quiz got under way. Forty five people formed numerous teams for a spirited evening of well-played competition. Last year the AGM made it to Adelaide for the first time and the decision to travel further west once again proved sound.

Jesse Shore
National President

Inspiring Australia competitive grant round is coming soon

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Inspiring Australia has announced a competitive grants round is intended to open in mid-January and will close by the end of February 2012. The grants round is to support all aspects of the Inspiring Australia strategy. There will be a focus on science engagement projects that target people who may not have had interest in or access to science engagement activities in the past.

Successful applicants will be announced and funding agreements confirmed by June.

A total of $5 million will be available for projects to be delivered in calendar years 2012, 2013 and/or 2014.

For the full notice see http://www.prodocom.com.au/html/actions/viewonline.php?ID=280451&cc=&loc=783a5c372d31315c74656d705c6175656475717565737461636f6e6d7374796c65735c68746d6c656d61696c5c3238303435315c3835393736365c6174746163685c&email=csmith@riaus.org.au.

Jesse Shore
National president

ASC national conference travel grants

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Up to four travel grants of $200-400 each are available to ASC members from WA for attending the Australian Science Communicators conference in Sydney in February 2012.

The ASC conference will be held 27-29 February 2012 in Sydney at the Sydney Masonic Centre, a centrally located conference venue. We look forward to ASC members from around Australia attending the conference.

To make the event affordable we kept conference registration fees low and sourced economically priced hotels as part of the conference accommodation offering.

We want to encourage more distant members to make the trip and we know that travel costs are a factor, especially to our many members in Western Australia. The National Executive has noted that return airfares from Perth to Sydney average $200 more than flights from other capital cities, with the exception of Darwin which is even more expensive.

The National Executive and WA branch committee will help up to four ASC members overcome the hurdle of this extra cost. Each group are contributing equally to provide $800 towards travel grants. The branch will decide how to allocate the funds, in grants of $200 to $400 each.

ASC conference travel grants

General criteria. To be eligible all applicants must

  • be residents of Western Australia, and current financial members of the Association (you may apply for membership when you submit your application for the travel grant). You can join or renew membership online at http://www.asc.asn.au/join/.
  • have limited or no financial support to attend the conference.
  • submit travel grant applications to the WA branch, asc.events.wa@gmail.com by 6 January 2012. Details of the application are below.

To apply for the grant: send an email to WA branch, asc.events.wa@gmail.com, with a statement in 100 words or less what you want to gain from attending the conference and how the grant will assist you to attend. Include full contact details with the address of your primary residence.

Applications will be assessed by representatives of both the WA branch committee and the National Executive. Applicants will be advised of the outcome in mid-January 2012.

Winning applicants must register for the conference to receive the grant and will get the early bird rate. Each winner will be invited to write an article for Scope about their conference experience.

The WA branch reserves the right not to award any grants.

Emma Donnelly, President of ASC WA Branch
Jesse Shore, National president

Australian Science Communicators welcomes new science and industry Ministers

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The Australian Science Communicators, the peak professional group of people who make science accessible to diverse audiences, welcome the appointment of Senator Chris Evans as Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Greg Combet as Minister for Industry and Innovation.

“Minister Evans has an opportunity to encourage improving the communication of science in the tertiary education area and to continue to seek to engage Australians with science,” said Dr Jesse Shore, President, ASC.

Inspiring Australia is the government’s science communication program. The report proposing the program was announced in early 2010 at the opening of the ASC conference. The program has been in operation for around a year later and holds promise to increase the effectiveness of delivering science messages throughout the country.

The ASC will continue to work with the Inspiring Australia team and sees opportunities for the program to link science and innovation between Ministers Evans’ and Combet’s departments.

ASC congratulates Senator Kim Carr for his leadership as Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science & Research since 2007 and especially for his passion about communicating science.

Jesse Shore
President, Australian Science Communicators

AGM in Perth, 30 November 2011: reminder about proxies and membership

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I hope to see WA members and some from the more easterly states at the AGM. If you are unable to attend please send your proxy to Sarah Lau, slau@chemcentre.wa.gov.au, or someone else you know is attending the meeting.

The WA branch of the ASC has agreed to host this year’s national AGM in Perth. We will keep the AGM short and to the point, have some lively discussion, and follow it with an evening of entertainment.

David Ellyard is presenting his science quiz. Around 100 people enjoyed this competitive challenge at last year’s end-of-year meeting in Adelaide.

Only financial members can attend the AGM so renew now if you haven’t done so already. The quiz will be open to all so bring someone along and remember to register for the event.

See you in Perth soon!

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC National Conference 2012 – Update & session overview

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The ASC National Conference will be at Sydney Masonic Centre from 27-29 February 2012. The program is coming into shape and looks enticing. Here’s a quick overview (some sessions may change, not all are listed, and titles and details of sessions will be refined):

Day 1

  • Opening keynote: Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist will open the conference and be the first plenary speaker.
  • After lunch: State Chief Scientists will feature in a plenary and then in parallel sessions.

Day 2

  • Plenary: Careers in science communicating – hear about career possibilities and resources.
  • Plenary: New media – continuing insights into how to use a range of rapidly evolving communication channels to communicate science (and maybe make a buck?).
  • Plenary: The NBN and how to use it -  a science communication perspective of  nation changing technology.

Day 3

  • Plenary: The Nobel experience – in an exclusive for the conference, Brian Schmidt, the 2011 Nobel Prize winner for Physics, is interviewed on video by Rod Lamberts. The discussion will interweave winning a major science prize with effective science communication of astronomy.
  • Plenary: Science and Art – a star-studded illustrated talk by David Malin and a conversation about beauty and science communication.
  • Plenary: Heads of Science Agencies – the big wigs will be prodded to tell all as they are quizzed about the role and funding for science communication in their patches.
  • Plenary: Advocacy – explore how heads of science advocacy groups represent their members’ interests to politicians and government departments.

Other parallel session topics include (partial listing; PD means session has a professional development focus):
*       Speed mentoring (PD)
*       The consultancy game – a follow-on from the careers plenary
*       Communication strategies
*       Philanthropy, fundraising and science communication
*       Beyond evaluation (PD)
*       Science as theatre
*       Putting the ‘confer’ back into conferences (PD)
*       The latest in research in science communication
*       Science and art sessions and exhibitions
*       War on science

Website: The conference website is http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/.
Online registration is active. See http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/register/.

Jesse Shore
National President