Author Archives: Jesse Shore

About Jesse Shore

Jesse Shore is passionate about engaging the community with science and in looking for ways to weave together the arts and sciences. He has been developing science based exhibitions and events since 1984, and was President of the Australian Science Communicators from 2010-2012. His business, Prismatic Sciences, produced five travelling exhibitions for the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry and he manages the ongoing national tour. He previously worked at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney as an exhibition project leader and Senior Curator of sciences. While at the museum he was one of the founders of the Ultimo Science Festival, a major National Science Week activity. He is currently collaborating with an artist to create artworks which have a science slant.

ASC National Conference 2012 – Update & session overview

Posted on by
Reply

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

Seeking an assistant treasurer – advertisement on its way

Posted on by
Reply

With the ASC Conference approaching, the coming months will be a great time to get training in a range of financial skills. David Ellyard, our long serving and excellent national treasurer, will be taking someone under his wing as Assistant Treasurer.

An advertisement for the position will be sent soon to the membership. This will be a good professional development opportunity for the right person.

This new position is part of our succession planning for senior ASC Management positions.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC Corporate Members

Posted on by
Reply

The ASC now has five corporate members which is an increase on last year. I welcome the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the Powerhouse Museum (NSW), Scitech (WA), the CSIRO Energy Group, and one other CSIRO group of communicators.

Each corporate member nominates 10 people as part of their membership group and designates one of these people as their voting delegate.

I will encourage our corporate members to talk about their particular science communication challenges. Grappling to explain a challenge may help to clarify it, and sharing it with the membership may provide useful feedback and insights into corporate science communication.

The corporate members bring new members to the ASC, which in turn offers value to all concerned. It’s great to have them on board and I look forward to hearing about their collective corporate thoughts.

Jesse Shore
National President

A Brighter Future for Science Conference Presentations?

Posted on by
Reply

I had a good response to my recent posting on the discussion list for feedback about a Physics World article, “Should scientific papers be written in a first-person narrative?” by James Dacey. The topic came to life again the other day in a related science communication experience.

I was on the judging panel for 2011 AIP NSW Postgraduate Awards Day where six students each gave a 20-minute presentation of their postgraduate research in physics. Presentations were judged for (1) content and scientific quality, (2) clarity and (3) presentation skills.

The four judges were very impressed by all the presentations. Each student crafted a narrative structure which was effective in introducing the context and history of their research topic, posing the current problems and presenting what they had done. Although the presentations covered very different areas of physics and some had a lot of technical detail, each student was able to communicate what they were doing to the physics-based audience.

These six students are among the top physics postgrads in NSW and the ACT and clearly had worked closely with their supervisors to achieve great presentations. I’m hoping that this represents a trend which values the importance of clear communication for research reporting.

To quote from the AIP NSW about the judging criteria, “These factors and others contribute to the overall impression of the candidate’s performance. A good talk is more than the sum of good performance in each component. The best talk is well-presented, well-practised, clear, conveys significance and impact, and is stimulating and memorable”.

Email me if you want a copy of the explanation of the judging criteria used for the AIP NSW Postgraduate Awards Day.

Jesse Shore
National President

 

Personalising science for scientists?

Posted on by
Reply

There is an interesting blog entry in physicsworld.com titled “Should scientific papers be written in a first-person narrative?” by James Dacey, http://physicsworld.com/blog/2011/10/should_scientific_papers_be_wr.html. It’s really a teaser for people to cast their vote on physicsworld’s Facebook page but it raises an interesting aspect of science communication.

Sci-commers have regularly posed the value of having a more narrative tone for papers only to be told that the science journals won’t accept papers written in that style.

Is there a need for journals to change their editorial formats? If there is change I imagine it would be at a glacially slow rate unless there is some worldwide paradigm shift in science report writing.

The question is also related to the communication skills of scientists. Some are superb communicators but many lack the skills to weave a compelling story which supports their thesis. Many ASC members make their livelihoods partly because of the preponderance of the latter. We also recognise that scientists need time to do science, and crafting a cracking communiqué is usually time-consuming.

Yet I wonder whether more readable papers would become more popular among scientists and get increasingly cited? That may not make for better science but could lead to academic promotion.

What are the reasons for scientific journals to welcome relevant narrative in papers?

How many science communicators does it take to change a scientist’s narrative light bulb?

Can you suggest other interesting opinions about personalising scientific papers?

Is this worthy of a session at the national conference?

Jesse Shore
National president

Scope editor update

Posted on by
Reply

In July Sally Miles and Silvia Piviali took on the Scope editorship from Laura Miles. Both Sally and Silvia have young children and agreed to job-share the workload.

Despite best intentions Silvia found the workload of a new-born and other family commitments left her little time for Scope tasks. Silvia has wisely asked to step away from Scope for 6 months. Sally has agreed to carry on as our sole editor.

I thank Silvia for her work on Scope in recent months and look forward to Sally continuing to mould Scope with flair.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC National Conference 2012 – update

Posted on by
Reply

The conference will be at Sydney Masonic Centre from 27-29 February 2012. Here’s a quick overview on progress so far:

  • Opening keynote: Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist will open the conference and be the first plenary speaker.
  • Hail to the Chiefs: Several state Chief Scientists have accepted invitations to speak at the conference. We anticipate they will feature in a plenary and perhaps parallel sessions.
  • Nobel presence: In a special video interview made for the conference, Australia’s 2011 Nobel Prize winner for Physics, Professor Brian Schmidt, will talk about the role of science communication in his work both before and after being awarded the Nobel. Rod Lamberts and Sue Stocklmayer will be asking him the hard questions. This special session will include a broad discussion of the role of science communication for science prize winners. Brian will be speaking in Washington during our conference and was sorry that he couldn’t be in two places at once.
  • Program progress: The program committee is digesting the submissions from the recent call for session producers and their proposals.
  • Pre-conference kick-start: There have been discussions with key people about the pre-conference event. If all goes well it will be fun and thought-provoking, and be a great way to lead into the conference proper.
  • Research stream: Rod Lamberts has nine reviewers lined up to scrutinise submitted research papers. Some of them may help with a subsequent monograph of a selection of edited papers to be produced after the conference is over.
  • Website: The conference website has gone live. Have a look at http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/.
  • Lots of infrastructure is being set in place and there are a few hurdles to get over. Online registrations will be activated any day now.

Jesse Shore
National President

AGM in Perth, 30 November 2011

Posted on by
Reply

The WA branch of the ASC has agreed to host this year’s National AGM in Perth. The official announcement will be posted soon. We keep the AGM short and to the point, yet provide opportunities for some lively discussion.

The AGM will be followed by David Ellyard 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 and the quiz will be open to all.

See you in Perth in November.

Jesse Shore
National President

Learn the ropes – seeking an Assistant National Treasurer

Posted on by
Reply

David Ellyard is our long serving and excellent National Treasurer. To preserve his corporate knowledge and to plan for the future we will be inviting members to express interest in becoming Assistant National Treasurer. David will teach you the ropes of our financial procedures and build your financial acumen. This will be a good professional development opportunity for the right person.

I will be issuing the invitation soon which will have a list of the duties of the treasurer and which tasks the assistant treasurer can expect to deal with.

Jesse Shore
National President

Unsung Hero of Science Communication Award

Posted on by
Reply

For a number of years the ASC presented an award called the ‘Unsung Hero of Science’ to worthy recipients. This award acknowledged a scientist for their body of work that we felt wasn’t given the spotlight the work and the person deserved.

We last presented this award in 2007. As we prepared the background information to ask for nominations, we reconsidered the nature of the award in light of e-list discussions during the year.

We feel that the ‘unsung hero’ concept is valid but that we should be acknowledging excellence in science communication rather than science. We are now preparing the criteria for the realigned award and will be issuing a call for nominations soon.

On a related and sad note, I am sorry to report the passing of our 2004 Unsung Hero of Science. Associate Professor Alan Norman Wilton from the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at The University of New South Wales passed away on 14 October 2011 after a 20-month battle with cancer. He was 56.

Jesse Shore
National President