For this episode, Dennis talked to Upulie Divisekera, the Australian molecular biologist and accomplished science communicator who co-founded “@RealScientists”. She shares how she got access to platforms with large audiences, and lessons from her SciComm experiences: that you should use storytelling and never underestimate your audience.

If you are on Twitter and like to learn about science and the people behind it, you probably know @Realscientists, the Twitter rotating curation account. There, real-life scientists sign up to talk about science and their daily lives for a week at a time; showcasing the diversity of scientists, and breaking the trope of academics as an elitist group.  

Filipa M. Ferreira, MSc, is a PhD candidate in neuroimmunology in Zurich, Switzerland. She studies the onset and development of multiple sclerosis (MS). Filipa is also involved with the
Young Scientist Network (LSZYSN) of Life Science Zurich, a student organization that brings together life science companies and early career scientists.

Filipa informs early career scientists about the jobs they can find outside academia, about the skills they need to develop, and about opportunities for entrepreneurship during and after the PhD.

In her week at @SfPRocur, Filipa wants to make clear that there’s no such thing as an ‘alternative’ career in science. “A conscious decision to stay in academia is as brave as the decision to leave it.”

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In May will be the next Pint of Science event!

Pint of Science is an annual festival that was founded by Michael Motskin and Praveen Paul. Every May scientists present their research to a public audience in a pub or a bar. It started in the UK in 2014, and it’s now spread throughout the world, with official events in 24 countries. In 2018, 120 000 people visited Pint of Science events. The events are planned by local teams, which make up the 3000 volunteers.

In this episode I spoke with Pint of Science organizer Elodie Chabrol, a former neuroscience researcher, who is now a full-time science communicator.

Dr. Susanne Tönsmann is managing director of the Participatory Science Academy in Zurich, Switzerland.

There, Susanne provides scientists and non-scientist citizens with the knowledge and training they need to efficiently work together. The core idea behind their work is to have citizens play an active role in science, rather than just paying for it via their taxes. Susanne and their colleagues are trying different methods and formats to make that happen. This job provides a wonderful opportunity to engage the public (“whoever that is”) and to make science more relevant to the many problems that the world faces today.

Susanne thinks that science, scientists and universities have a responsibility to solve real world problems; this should not be a side effect of research, but at the core. However, researchers in academia are mostly rewarded for publications and acquired grant money.

During their week at @SfPRocur, Susanne will discuss how the academic merit system can get in the way of that responsibility, and what could be done to improve things.

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Dr. phil. des. Fanny Gutsche-Jones is Community Manager at the Citizen Science Center Zürich in Switzerland, where she works to tear down barriers between academia and the rest of society. The Citizen Science Center promotes real collaboration between academics and other members of society; not just increased dialogue between the two.

Fanny thinks that anybody should be able to do research about questions that interest them. “Contributing to that in a position where I am at the intersection between academics and non-professional researchers, or those who will become ones, is very exciting and fulfilling.”

In her week at @SfPRocur, Fanny will tweet about ongoing citizen science projects and about the potential for change that comes from public participation in knowledge production.

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Pilar Vesga, MSc, is a PhD candidate in the plant pathology group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she studies how some bacteria could be used to combat harmful insects and plant diseases. Her work helps lay the groundwork for better pest management, which could eventually help solve the world’s food crisis.

In her week at @SfProcur, Pilar will discuss biological pest control, the food crisis, the role GMOs can play in solving it, and what the alternatives are. As a microbiologist and general bacteria enthusiast, she will also share some of her favorite curious microbes.

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“If we constantly have to talk to people about why fake science is wrong […], we will not be able to move biomedical research forward.”

Dr. Hillary Stires is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). She is currently transitioning from cancer research to science policy work.

Hillary is particularly passionate about including patient advocates in the dialogue for the next frontiers of cancer research. She encourages other scientists to consider the patients’ concerns when designing experiments, and hopes to improve patient-researcher relationships by raising awareness in researchers.

During her curation on @sfprocur, Hillary will talk about the scientists’ responsibility to communicate their science with broad audiences. Not only are many researchers and institutes in biomedical sciences funded by the public, there is a lot of misinformation by non-scientists that is slowing biomedical progress.

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This episode of Bart and Dennis Talk is actually our first anniversary episode! While Science for Progress was founded in July 2017, the podcast went online on February 20th 2018!

Announcement

At the beginning of the episode I announce that I will be on the Twitter “rotating curation account” @RecovingAcad, which belongs to the Recovering Academic Podcast. We had a crossover episode with them, last November. I will be tweeting about leaving academia and transitioning into industry from February 25th to March 2nd.

On March 3rd I will do a live video AMA on the account @theaddictivebrain on Instagram. Addictive Brain is a science communication project that was initiated by Chinmaya Sadangi, who was curator on our twitter rotating curation account @sfprocur. My AMA on Instagram starts at 3 p.m. UTC and will take about an hour.

Anniversary!

Just some announcements this time

In contrast to what was promised in the last podcast episode, we don’t have a full question and answer episode this time. I hope this will not happen too often, in future.

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Hello progressive people!

I proudly present our two new projects!

Podcast for Progress

I just uploaded the first episode of our podcast where Hugo and I have a conversation on science communication, and FameLab. Of course we also geeked out a bit in the end! 😛

Hugo is a member of Science for Progress. He is currently working on his MSc thesis at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2017 he took part in the FameLab science communication contest. Here we talk about his experience.

SfP Rotating Curators on Twitter

And we also started collecting people who are active on Twitter to contribute to our upcoming ‘rotating curation’ account @SfProcur . Such ‘rocur’ accounts feature a different curator every week. I am excited that despite the virtually absent followship of the account (starting is always difficult), people have responded very positively to my requests! So, please follow @SfProcur! Starting date is in March!

I hope you will enjoy our new projects!