London Scicomm Social Symposium
A South Africa Event on 2016-04-28 10:15:00
In September 2015 we started the London SciComm Socials as a chance for science communicators* from across London to get together. On 28th April we want to provide a more formal chance for people across the sector to share their work and their ideas, to look for themes that link us all up and projects we can do together, and of course to network extremely efficiently. And that’s how the Scicomm Social Symposium was born. We’ve tried to create sessions that reflect the strengths of the community that have come to the London socials so far. * We’ve met scientists, teachers, learned society staff, co-ordinators of public engagement in universities, marketers, writers, performers, comedians, press officers, scicomm students, bloggers, historians of science, museum folk and we want to meet even more people! Event Details: 10.15am – 10.30am: Registration 10.30am – 12noon: Session 1: Research is the start of communication Join us as we explore the relationship between funders, universities, membership organisations and learned societies, and the relationships researchers have with each of these. 12noon – 1pm: Lunch Break 1pm – 2.30pm: Session 2: Not everyone in science is a scientist In this session we discuss the informal science communication sector, looking at science culture, freelancing, and performance, with speakers from the world of TV, podcasts, and events. 1pm – 2.30pm: Breakout Session: Supporting public engagement within institutions This session has been organised in collaboration with the London Public Engagement Network (PEN), which aims to share best practice and provide a space for sharing and networking for isolated public engagement support staff who have a culture change remit. 2.30pm – 3pm: Tea/coffee Break 3pm – 4pm: Session 3: The content session With help from press office staff, science writers and communications professionals we will look at science communication in it's broadest sense, including media, broadcast, science writing, and press. 4pm – 4.30pm: Closing Session A chance to relfect on the day, give us some feedback, and join us in thanking our collaborators. 6pm onwards…. London SciCommSocial From 6pm we will be in our regular venue of The Somers Town Coffee House. The London SciComm Socials are a chance to meet other people from in and around London who are interested in science communication and to share ideas. The entire conference is operating on a no-fee, zero-budget basis. We are not paying anyone, including the organisers and speakers. We aren’t organizing catering because the conference will take place surrounded by great places to get tea, coffee and food. Tickets are free, but to book a place, we are asking people to donate £10 to charity. All the money we collect will go to Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity (www.uk-sands.org). Our speakers include: Mary-Clare Hallsworth is the Public Engagement Coordinator at Birkbeck, responsible for public engagement advice and support across the whole institution. She works with academic staff and students at all levels to nurture a culture of high quality public engagement linked to research. She regularly works with partner organisations, funders and learned societies to support academics based at Birkbeck. Mary-Clare is also the brains behind the London SciComm Socials, and the London Public Engagement Network (PEN). Martin Zaltz Austwick – an academic, musician, podcaster and occasional visual artist. In his academic life he leads a masters programme on Spatial Data Science and Visualisation. Based at The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL, Martin can regularly be found giving public talks, chairing Cafe Scientifique events and running podcasts. He is also the 2015-2016 UCL Provost's Awards for Public Engagement Institutional Leadership Award winner. Charlotte Thorley is manager of the Centre for Public Engagement at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Charlotte has worked for SETPOINT Greater Manchester, the Royal Society and the South East Physics Network. Her current role at QMUL leading their strategic interest in public engagement involves building networks and understanding across an incredibly diverse group of stakeholders and subjects. She is also currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Education (IOE) looking at the role of the scientist in classroom interventions and outreach activities. Charlotte is also Chair of the CERN@School steering group. Dominic Galliano is Director of Outreach at SEPnet. He has worked across industry, academia and learned societies. During his PhD in Cosmology at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation he was the Student Outreach Representative. While at the Institute of Physics (IOP) he managed projects such at the national Physics in the Field programme and Cheers Physics, and ran the IOP's Public Engagement Grant Scheme. Since becoming Director of Outreach for SEPnet in early 2015 he has written a new strategy and structure for the existing Outreach programme which includes a greater emphasis on Public Engagement. Bella Starling is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow, on secondment from her role as Director of Public Programmes at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester. Her career has spanned neuroscience, science writing, biomedical ethics, public engagement, patient involvement and science policy, both as a practitioner and strategic adviser. She is passionate about inclusion in, and democratisation of, research; her Wellcome Engagement Fellowship will explore how public engagement with research can act as a catalyst for social change. Steve Cross is a Wellcome Engagement Fellow and formerly Head of Public Engagement at UCL (University College London). Steve works with organisations across Europe to advise on public engagement strategy, and the importance of embedding public engagement support at all levels of an organisation. He has experience working with academic staff and students at all levels, across a wide range of subject areas. The creator of Bright Club and Science Showoff, Steve is also a freelance public engagement consultant, trainer, presenter and a comedian. Jamie Upton is a former researcher at Barts School of Medicine and Dentistry and the newest recruit to the Royal Society's Public Engagement team, but comes wearing neither hat to the symposium (and he is a man who really likes wearing hats). Instead he comes in the role of freelance sci-commer to talk about his side-projects Art Neuro/Necro working with the likes of QMUL, UCL, Imperial, the Edinburgh and Northern Ireland Science Festivals, the Ri, Barts Pathology Museum, Alzheimers Research UK, ASCUS and the Mothership Group. Suze Kundu is fascinated by “stuff”, often breaking things apart to try and figure out how everything works. Luckily science has enabled her to turn this destructive curiosity into a career, first through a BSc in Chemistry, then an MSc in Analytical Chemistry and finally a PhD in Materials Chemistry at University College London in 2012. Fulfilling her destiny as an eternal student, she has since studied for a teaching qualification, and is now a Teaching Fellow, previously in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London and now at the University of Surrey's Chemical and Process Engineering Department. Although her research area is functional nanomaterials, as a science communicator she is able to delve into the wider applications of chemistry, physics and materials science and engineering all around us, and loves sharing this through live lectures, on TV (Discovery Channel) and radio. Ivvet Modinou has been working in public engagement for the last decade. In her role as Head of Engagement she currently oversees the BSA’s public-facing programmes, including flagship programmes such as the British Science Festival and British Science Week. Her team are also responsible for the BSA’s volunteers across the country; including 32 local branches and 16 scientific sections, all of whom organise, run and contribute to live science events. She also convenes the UK Science Festivals Network. Before joining the BSA she worked at the Natural History Museum, leading the development and implementation of the Museum’s science communication programme. Simon Watt is a biologist, writer, science communicator, comedian and TV presenter. He runs “Ready Steady Science” and takes science based performances into schools, museums, theatres and festivals. He runs the “Ugly Animal Preservation Society”. He is the co-creator and host of the new science panel show podcast, Level Up Human. His new book “The Ugly Animals: We Can’t All be Pandas” is out now. He is a regular contributor to TV, radio and web and is perhaps best known as a presenter on the BAFTA winning documentary series Inside Nature’s Giants and the Channel 4 special The Elephant: Life After Death. Ellen Dowell is a creative producer of science engagement projects and interdisciplinary facilitator. She has a BA in Theatre: Design for Performance from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and an MSc in Science Communication from the University of the West of England. Ellen currently has two roles: as the curator and creative producer of Einstein’s Garden (the science, nature and environment area of the Green Man Festival), and at Imperial College London developing creative engagement projects for the National Heart & Lung Institute. Julia Day is Head of Communications at Birkbeck overseeing a large team with expertise in events, digital design and web management, communications and PR and public engagement. She is an experienced journalist with a particular interest in research at universities. She previously worked in the senior management team at the Institute of Development Studies’ STEPS Centre in Sussex, delivering communications for diverse audiences, linked to national and international policy processes across Africa, India, China, Latin America and Europe. Sarah Cox is the press officer for Goldsmiths, University of London, working in a tiny two-person PR team with the Head of Communications to get research "out there" through the media. She works with academics from across the university's departments, but has had some particular success in the last year with psychology, computing and history. One of her missions is to stop people saying "I had no idea Goldsmiths does science!?". Sarah was previously a PR assistant (for a very short time) at a local council, for Hyundai Motor Company UK, and then at Queen Mary University of London, where, among other things, she promoted Barts Pathology Museum for three years after it first opened to the public. Ruth Francis has vast experience in the communications and policy arena. As well as many years running communications teams at Springer, BioMed Central and Nature, she has coordinated and spoken on panels on subjects ranging from science communication, evaluation of campaigns, and evidence based policy making. She has written for Nature, and appeared on the Guardian Science Podcast. Ruth has worked in the press offices at King’s College London and at Cancer Research UK. She has a BA Hons. in English from the University of Leeds.
at Birkbeck
Lecture Theatre: B04 , 43 Gordon Square
London, United Kingdom
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