Decadal Plan for Space Science
Resume in
a nutshell
Major aspects in past ten years
- 2008 Doctorate "Communicating Astrobiology in Public" submitted July, 2008.
- 2008 Two PhD students registered at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, starting July.
- 2008 Arizona State University/NASA Astrobiology Drilling Project - core dynamic website being created in Dreamweaver, AJAX and MySQL with virtual worlds content due mid-August.
- 2008 Southern SERENDIP being reinstalled at the Parkes radio telescope with A/Prof Frank Stootman to begin new observing runs and to undertake school and public outreach projects beginning with a display at the Parkes radio telescope visitors' centre (which receives 100,000 visitors a year). (See 1995-2002 below).
- 2008 Media workshops given at Arizona State University, March; Harley Wood Winter School, Freemantle, July; to be given at the Australian Space Science Conference, Canberra, September.
- 2008 Co-chaired "Sound of Silence" workshop hosted by the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. Held at Arizona State University, February 5-7, followed by a meeting of the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Post-Detection Task Group of which I am Deputy Chair and Dr Paul Davies is Chair; Feb 7-8.
- 2008 International SETI Conference, UNESCO, Paris, France September 22; invited talk on professional SETI in Australia.
- 2008 International Astronautical Congress, Glasgow, Sept 29-Oct 3. Co-chair SETI II Interdisciplinary Aspects of SETI, 37th IAA Symposium on SETI - The Next Steps.
- 2004-2007 Developed a hi-tech virtual worlds high school astrobiology education project with NASA Learning Technologies and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The resulting LifeLab DVD was launched via Australia’s most successful science magazine, Cosmos, on April 4, 2007. It was distributed in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and USA, and was the second biggest selling issue ever for the magazine; the associated wiki website http://pilbara.mq.edu.au 335,000 full page visits (more than two million hits) by June, 2008. The project, which attracted a $119,500 grant from the Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Maths fund, has been adopted by the Victorian Space Science Education Centre.
- 2006 Represented Australia in the Global Exploration Strategy planning meeting at the International Astronautical Congress in Valencia, Spain. I presented the concept of a media and public document to the group interacted with colleagues from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, ISRO (Indian Space Agency), JAXA (Japanese Space Agency), BNSC (British Space Agency), DLR (German Space Agency), ASI (Italian Space Agency), CNES (French Space Agency, and the RKA (Russian Space Agency). The final GES document highlighted the role education and public outreach.
- 2006 Elected full member of the invitation-only International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and took up membership of Commission VI, the group for the social sciences (including education, media and outreach) of the IAA. A number of my papers have been presented at the joint IAA/IAF (International Astronautical Federation) conference, the International Astronautical Congress.
- 2005 Co- organiser of a Pilbara workshop and field trip for 35 international researchers and science education experts (Fremantle and the Pilbara, Western Australia, respectively). Covered by US television documentary crew and The Australian.
- 2003-2005 Initiator and founding chair of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Science Communciation Working Group.
- 2003 Brought together 24 Year 10 students from 10 Sydney high schools to design their own experiment with scientists for a NASA Johnson Space Centre mission to ‘black smoker’ hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean.
- 2002 Raised the International Astronomical Union’s Symposium 213: Bioastronomy: Life Among the Stars gaining $150,000 in support; raised, in tandem, the Fulbright Symposium 2002: Science Education in Partnership, which won a Fulbright grant of $20,000. Both held on the Great Barrier Reef, July, 2002, attracting an international delegation of 300 and 80 media interactions.
- 1995-2002 While at the University of Western Sydney, recommended it concentrate on a particularly public-sensitive initiative – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) - as part of a strategic plan to raise the profile of the science faculty. This consisted of a plan to utilise the visit of the SETI Institute to the Parkes Radio Telescope in NSW and the participation of one of UWS’s physicists, Dr Bobbie Vaile, who was to be a volunteer observer. The plan was implemented, including media training for Dr Vaile, and over a six month period the measured editorial space in print and electronic media soared from a few thousand dollars per year to millions. Every news channel, science show, national and local media radio and print outlets covered Dr Vaile’s participation. As a result, Bobbie won the Australian Science Communicator’s Unsung Hero Award for her outreach to public audiences. With Bobbie, I initiated, established and helped to run the SETI Australia Centre and raised $100,000 internationally for the building of a SETI experiment (Southern SERENDIP) on the Parkes radio telescope, NSW. I raised the first Australian international SETI conference with Dr Ragbir Bhatal, attracting more than 100 international delegates and nearly 50 media interactions, by orchestrating and implementing a specific media plan with the main guest, Dr Frank Drake, of the SETI Institute.
Positions:
- 2008 Freelance consultant
- 2004-2007, Assistant Director (Management and Outreach) Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University
- 1994-2002 Science journalist, University of Western Sydney
- 1999-2000 Producer and presenter, weekly Discovery science radio show (2SER public service radio)
- 1990-1994 Freelance science journalist
- 1979-1990 News and science journalist Independent Television News, London, UK
- 1967-1979 News journalist and sub-editor for various UK regional and daily newspapers
Other positions:
- 2006 to present, Public Outreach Working Group Chair, National Space Science Committee of the Australian Academy of Science (for the AAS Decadal Plan for Space Science)
- 2006 to present, Deputy Chair with Chair Prof Paul Davies (Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University) on the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Post Detection Working Group
- 2003-2005 Founding chair of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Science Communication working group
- 2003-2004 Co-chair of the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Permanent Study Group
- 2004-2007, Member of Commission VI (the ruling group for the social sciences including education, media and outreach) of the International Academy of Astronautics
Web development:
- 2007 Created a wiki searchable website for the Beyond Institute, Arizona State University
- 2006-2007 Designed, created and now maintain a wiki searchable website as part of an Earth sciences/astrobiology outreach project with NASA http://pilbara.mq.edu.au
- 2002-2007 Designed, created and maintained several iterations of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology website.
- 2003-2005 Designed, created and helped maintain the Macquarie University Biotechnology Research Institute website.
- 1996-2001 Designed, created and maintained a website for SETI Australia at UWS attracting several Internet awards
Education:
- 2008, submitted PhD in science communication, “Communicating Astrobiology in Public: A study of scientific literacy”, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Supervisors: Professor Malcolm Walter, Professor Paul Davies. Associate supervisor, Professor Richard Dawkins.
- 2003 Research Masters in Science Communication, Central Queensland University
- 2001 Graduate Certificate in Science Communication, Central Queensland University (transferred to Masters program)
- 1967-1970 Journalism apprenticeship including on-the-job training in all aspects of print journalism and college
Software capabilities:
- Microsoft Word, Excel 2003 and 2007(to advanced data analysis) PowerPoint (advanced use), Outlook, Dreamweaver CS3, Photoshop CS, ImageReady CS, Paint Shop Pro X2, Adobe Acrobat (reader and writer), Bryce Virtual Worlds, QuickTime Professional, Publisher. Experience in working with advanced virtual reality for outreach purposes and research. Working knowledge of webcasting, podcasting, rss feeds, and sms reporting.
Teaching and public presentations:
- Teacher associate during a total of 18 weeks’ testing of the LifeLab project (mentioned above) including seven Sydney high schools, one US high school and three UK high schools
- SETI lectures in Macquarie University third level astrobiology unit
- Taught in multiple teacher professional development workshops
- Regular public presentations in Australia and overseas including at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, at the NSW Government’s annual Science EXPOsed exhibition (since its inception three years ago) and Australia’s annual Science Week
- Regular media workshops for postgraduate students and scientists
Research student supervision:
- 2007 Mikayla Keen (Honors year - science communication) and Eric Dalgliesh (Honors year - virtual reality). Both achieved First Class Honours.
External honors:
1966-1967 American Field Service scholarship for one year’s study in the USA