Decadal Plan for Space Science
Resume in
a nutshell
Overview:
Education:
Grants:
Awards:
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Key skills:
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- The importance of evidence http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/science-communication-the-importance-of-evidence/
- Doctoral thesis Communicating astrobiology in public: A study of scientific literacy http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/unsworks:3533
Achievements:
- Designed and leading a million dollar astrobiology and space robotics education and research project at the Powerhouse, Sydney - Australia's largest science museum (see Pathways to Space)
- Identified, and researching, a major gap in knowledge of the public understanding of science (see article above)
- Supervised Honours students and currently supervising PhD research students
- Four publications and 30 conference abstracts and papers
- Teaching experience in astrobiology and science communication
- Undertaken a substantial career as a news and science journalist for multi-edition daily newspapers, television and radio, both in the UK and Australia
- Currently engaged NASA’sVirtual Field Trips project (funded by NASA) as a member of the Arizona State University and MIT NASA Astrobiology teams.
- Managed multiple education and outreach projects including one that has attracted more than a million full page views since mid-2007 (see Pilbara wiki)
- Author and co-convenor of a third-level university course at the University of NSW, "Astrobiology: Life in the Universe"
Career in a nutshell:
I am a qualified journalist with a substantial career in print, radio, and television journalism in the UK and in Australia. I also have 15 years’ experience in science communication - in practical application, research, grant-making and teaching capacities - with the University of Western Sydney, Macquarie University, and - currently - the University of New South Wales.
I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales and in 2010 I won a million-dollar grant from the Australian Space Research Program for a project entitled Pathways to Space. I lead a consortium of three other members of the bid – the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney, the Powerhouse Museum, and Cisco Systems Australia.
Pathways to Space, is a collaborative, hands-on program enabling year 10-12 students to plan space exploration projects using a 'living laboratory' to simulate realistic scenarios and gain an understanding of space engineering challenge. An intensive three-year study is designed to understand if and how the strategy works in terms of the desired outcome – more students taking up space-related courses at university.
I am also a member of NASA's Astrobiology teams at Arizona State University and MIT where I am project-managing the development of a new technology Virtual Field Trip to the Ediacaran era in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. This VFT will form the backbone of a series of VFT's including two other sites in Australia - the Pilbara and Shark Bay.
Between 2004 and 2007 I assembled a multidisciplinary team under a NASA Space Act Agreement with the ACA to develop the first Virtual Field Trip designed for upper high school students. The Pilbara VFT was created on an international field trip to the Pilbara in Western Australia. The Pilbara contains the earliest convincing evidence of life on Earth. The wiki web site associated with this original VFT has had more than a million full page views. The project attracted a $119,500 grant from the Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics fund.
I gained my doctorate in 2008 with three one’s (highest examiner recommendation - no change required). My supervisors included palaeobiologist and author Professor Malcolm Walter and cosmologist and author Professor Paul Davies. The associate supervisor was evolutionary biologist and author Professor Richard Dawkins.
Although my career has focused on space exploration in the past 15 years, it is an area that engages all science disciplines. For example, projects have required precision communication involving multiple stakeholders in molecular biology, biology, geology, biochemistry, astrophysics, optical and radio astronomy, and palaeobiology. I have a broad interest in all science, in particular as it relates to the systems and processes of our own planet, and as it is applied in science education.
I have been engaged in the education, media, and outreach programs, teaching, research and postgraduate supervision for the Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA), first at Macquarie University and then at the University of New South Wales since 2002.
Between 1994 and 2002 I was the science journalist at the University of Western Sydney, principally responsible for its then SETI Australia program.
In 2002 I was invited to full membership of the International Academy of Astronautics(IAA) where I am active in astrobiology outreach internationally. I am Deputy Chair of the IAA's SETI Post Detection Task Group led by the cosmologist and author Prof Paul Davies.
In 1999 I won, against France and Iceland, the three-yearly International Astronomical Union's Bioastronomy Symposium. This was held on the Barrief Reef, Australia (Hamilton Island) in July 2002 in tandem with another win - the Fulbright Symposium "Science Education in Partnership".