This week I was working at the Australian Science Communicators conference of 2014 (ASC14), held in sunny Brisbane from the 2-5th February.
While I was there, I took the chance to catch up with three great science communicators: John Cook, Vanessa Hill and Kylie Walker.
John Cook is the Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland. He created SkepticalScience.com, a website that refutes climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. In 2011, Skeptical Science won the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge.
John has co-authored the college textbook Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis, the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand and several papers on climate change and the psychology of misinformation.
The Skeptical Science website refutes climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. We achieve this by embracing a diversity of message formats, delivered through social media and smartphone apps, delivered to hundreds of thousands of people each month. To cater to a diverse audience, myth rebuttals are available at advanced, intermediate and beginner levels, from detailed, technical treatments to tweetable one-liners.
Vanessa Hill is a communications professional with expertise in social media, online strategy and community engagement. Following a career in science education and outreach with CSIRO in NSW, NT and north QLD she joined the Corporate Communication team as a Social Media Advisor. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Science from UNSW and a Masters of Science Communication from ANU.
Vanessa’s new YouTube channel. ‘BrainCraft’ focuses on psychology and human behaviour, highlighting Hill’s background in science education and social media. Her videos tell entertaining and educational stories with paper craft and time-manipulated sketching.
Kylie Walker is a communications professional with more than 18 years experience in strategy, media and advocacy at the state and federal political level. After more than 10 years in journalism, with a strong focus on medicine and science, Kylie left the federal Press Gallery to handle media and publications for the Australian Medical Association. Now Director Communications and Outreach at the Australian Academy of Science, she oversees external and internal communication strategy, media, events, publications and the organisation’s philanthropy function. Kylie has been an Ambassador and Director of The Warwick Foundation, the nation’s only charity providing psycho-social support to young adults with cancer, and is Chair of the National Science Week ACT Coordinating Committee.
The Science of Immunisation: Questions And Answers aims to address confusion created by contradictory information in the public domain. It sets out to explain the current situation in immunisation science, including where there is consensus in the scientific community and where uncertainties exist.
Theme songs are “P&P” by Derek K. Miller of www.penmachine.com and “Leap Second” by Milton Mermikides, ofwww.miltonmermikides.com. Song used in this episode: “Laundry by makardos. Bass Walker and “Backed Vibes (clean)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0.
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