Science and Technology Communication
Back in my academic days I ended up in a very interesting role as a science communicator. I was even lovingly called the Galaxy Love Dr after my biggest foray into public speaking with my 3 minute explanation of my PhD thesis. I then went on a journey of giving talks all over Canberra and out at Star Fest (Coonabarabran). Most of my talks revolved around Astronomy and I loved bringing the cool science to those who aren't directly in the field!
What I have continued to find, even after changing my career to consulting in Industry, is that there are still plenty of people hungry for understanding in technology and its uses. So when speaking to clients I get to reuse some of those old skills in wording my explanations of what we could do for them in different ways.
I continue to work with my colleagues to best express what we are building, how it works, and the metrics we use in a straight forward manner so that anyone could understand what we've done. But I'd love to bring these types of explanations to the public, to ensure we don't end up in a SkyNet or VIKI situation in the future. (Which is becoming more and more likely with the increased use of LLMs being done with abandon.)
[Photo credit: Stuart Hay]
Merging Galaxies: Love Stories Written in the Sky
This is where it all started; The ANU 3 minute thesis competition. From a 3 minute presentation I learnt more about public speaking than I had from the many disastrous talks I had given before, including that it wasn't so scary after all. I am lucky enough to have been recorded giving my ANU final talk. Please check it out. Why not have a look at some of the other contestants from each year as well? You may be pleasantly surprised by what you learn!
STARFEST 2014 - When Galaxies Collide
At the 2014 StarFest I was recorded giving a talk about, you guessed it, Merging Galaxies! Why not check it out? There are also talks form Brian Schmidt, and Dan Bayliss, among others for even more Astronomy talks!
ABC radio podcast of 3MT presentation - The Science Show with Robyn Williams
As a final part of my 3MT journey I was asked to come on Robyn Williams' The Science Show on ABC 666 radio. It was definitely interesting and I am so glad I got the chance to meet with Robyn and talk on radio. [Image credit: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger]