Category Archives: People

Profiles of science communicators (more often than not these will be ASC members)

Member Profile: Silvia Piviali

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Silvia Piviali

It didn’t take Silvia very long to settle into the way of life in Perth, Western Australia after she immigrated from Italy, at age 6.  Its hard to believe that this is her 25th year of living in Perth, where she is happily settled with her 2 young children and husband of 6 years. From a young age, Silvia always asked lots of questions, and it was this inquisitive and curious nature, that led to an interest then career in Science, specializing in the Medical Sciences.  For many years after qualifying, she worked on the laboratory bench, but then her outgoing personality craved contact with people (not specimens!) and she embarked  on many interesting career roles such as Sales, Marketing, Recruitment, Writing, Consulting and now as Co-Editor of SCOPE, using the field of Science as her basis.  Silvia enjoys keeping fit & healthy through the Swimming & Tennis clubs she is a member of, looking after her rental property, playing with her Golden Retriever dog and taking holidays with her family.  Interestingly, Silvia was offered this role whilst still in hospital, after her second child, Chiara, now aged 5 weeks old, came along!!

New Scope editor

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The Executive Committee and I were ecstatic with the response to the recent advertisement for the position of Scope editor. But then we had the agony of deciding between excellent applications from several well qualified candidates. In the end, we went for an unexpected outcome.

I’m pleased to announce that not only do we have a new editor for Scope, but that we have two new editors in a job sharing arrangement. Sally Miles (no relation to Laura), from Sydney, and Silvia Piviali, from Perth, will team up to produce our newsletter.

The Executive is anticipating that this job-share will contribute to building up expertise and experience within the ASC and ease workloads during increasingly busy times.

I look forward to Sally and Silvia introducing themselves to you in their new role.

Jesse Shore

National President

ASC management committees – old and new heads

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Managing the ASC through the National Council and Executive requires the input of diverse voices and levels of experience. A few years ago the ASC wisely decided to add the position of Past-President to the management committees. This is a vital way to keep a person with key corporate knowledge involved in our decision making. Some other roles on the committees are filled by members have offered their services and insights over a number of years. They have worked well with those who have joined the committees more recently. The balance of experience brings benefits to our discussions.

In another article in this issue of Scope I mention that Phil Dooley has resigned from our national committees to take a posting overseas. He is taking with him several years of experience at the branch level and two years at national level.

I know that some other members will be making this their last year of long and distinguished service on national committees. The Executive will seek to fill current and expected upcoming vacancies and I encourage members to consider involvement at the national level. It is advisable that you have participated on a branch or national committee previously. You may have an opportunity to assist a member of the Executive to learn the ropes of their role before going solo.

I’ll send out more news about roles on national committees soon.

Jesse Shore

National President

Young Tall Poppy Science Award Campaign and the ASC

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I am pleased to announce that the ASC has signed a Letter of Agreement (LoA) with the Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS).

AIPS runs the nationwide Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. Selection criteria for these awards include outstanding research / academic achievement as well as excellence in communication and community engagement to promote an understanding of science. For more information about these awards visit http://www.aips.net.au/tall-poppies/tall-poppy-campaign/.

The winners of these awards participate in education and community outreach programs. The ASC has been looking for ways to involve the award winners in our branch events and national conference. The LoA will help this to happen as it states that a Tall Poppy’s participation in an ASC event will count towards their obligation to particulate in at least two outreach activities in the year following their award.

I will encourage ASC branches to develop events involving the Tall Poppy winners. Such events could explore the stratagems used by these early career scientists to communicate their work and what tools they seek to improve their skills.

The main points of the LoA follow:

“ASC and AIPS recognise:

  • the need to build connections between scientists and science communicators;
  • the need for professional development for both scientists and science communicators in science communication;
  • the importance of partnerships to further science communication objectives; and
  • the need to reward and celebrate science communication excellence.

ASC and AIPS agree that:

  • A Tall Poppy forum or other joint event will be held annually where possible in each State and Territory of Australia as a professional development initiative for ASC members and for the young scientists involved;
  • The Tall Poppy Campaign will liaise with relevant State & Territory chapters of ASC to make this happen; and
  • A Tall Poppy’s participation in such an event will count towards their obligation to participate in at least two outreach activities in the year following their Award

In addition, efforts to cross promote our mutual objectives will be made in any such initiatives, and our achievements will be reviewed after one year of operation of this agreement.”

Jesse Shore

National President

Phil Dooley – JETstar

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Phil Dooley, co-vice president of the ASC, former chair of the NSW branch committee and all-around great person, is leaving us and Australia. He is heading for a life in Oxford where he will be in a science communication position at the Joint European Torus (JET) – Europe’s largest Fusion Device.

Phil injected much energy into the NSW branch over several years and has been a science communication force for good as a member of the National Council and Executive. I’m confident that all ASC members who know Phil will join me in wishing him all the best for his new job in the old world. And we trust that his leap from the Physics department at Sydney University to JET is more than a break-even step (a weak fusion joke).

Phil will be leaving in the latter part of August, giving you time to inundate him with neutrons and other niceties for his journey.

Jesse Shore

National President

ASC ACT branch – National Youth Week event

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Fenella Edwards, Vice-President, ACT branch, writes: To celebrate National Youth Week and the International Year of Chemistry, CSIRO Discovery hosted an evening for young people – of all ages!

The theme of chemistry was visible in an array of non-alcoholic cocktails, or ‘mocktails’ mixed up by the ACT Branch of Australian Science Communicators. These colourful concoctions, as well as admission to the Discovery exhibition with live creature shows, were included in the free admission event.

Local bands ‘Project B’ (Lyneham High School) and ‘Loud Mud’ (Gundaroo) entertained all with jazz and light rock before the poetry element of the evening sparked up some creative chemistry among the crowd.

Canberra poet extraordinaire Hal Judge guided us through a group performance of two of his poems, and invited the audience to submit creative answers to questions to win prizes. The audience were then dazzled (if not intimidated) by fabulous performances of local poets Omar Musa and Andrew Galan before the open-mic poetry competition got underway – with $500 in worth of prizes up for grabs for the best original poem/story/song having a chemistry theme.

The winning poem by Sarah Sherringham ‘The Tale of the Very Strange Step-mother’ was a modern day remake of the fairy tale Snow White, the following is an excerpt:

“Some people said she married him just for the cash
And they were not entirely mistaken in that.
The sciences had taken such a beating and a shunning,
Rich husbands were the last source of research funding!

In the room she’d been given to dress for tea,
She’d set up some kind of weird laboratory
Where beakers bubbled and test tubes foamed;
She stayed in there all day and night, on her own.

…

Wrapped up her research (in time for tea
Published her treatise on Clean Energy;
Became the leading expert in her field of Chemistry;
And these days she’s a Professor at the University.”

Also during the evening, prizes were awarded to the winners of the National Youth Week science-art competition, ‘When Science Meets Art’. The winning entries were on display in the CSIRO Discovery gallery space throughout National Youth Week, see the prize winners at: http://www.csiro.au/resources/When-Science-Meets-Art-2011.html

 

Many thanks to our departing Scope editor, Laura Miles

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Our tireless editor of Scope, Laura Miles, is leaving the position after three years of service. She is making room in her busy diary for a range of other opportunities which have opened for her.

The National Council thanks Laura for her valuable contributions to the ASC. I add my appreciation for her work with Tim Thwaites, James Hutson, Kali Madden and me to improve our communications and refine our membership strategies. Laura has been a thoughtful voice in many discussions about complex matters.

We will be advertising for the position of Scope editor and I hope we have willing and capable hands being raised to take on this important task.

Laura is of course unique and therefore irreplaceable. Happily the ASC has members with different unique qualities and one of you will have the opportunity to stamp their mould on the position.

I wish Laura all the best in her other endeavours and I expect we will continue to seek her council on a range of issues.

Jesse Shore
National President