About

Associate Professor Jen Martin

Jen (@scidocmartin) spent many years working as a field ecologist until she decided the most useful thing she could contribute as a scientist was to teach other scientists how to be effective and engaging communicators. Jen founded and leads the University of Melbourne's acclaimed Science Communication Teaching Program and is deeply committed to helping scientists develop the skills they need to be visible, make connections and have impact. She also practises what she preaches: for almost 20 years she’s been talking about science each week on 3RRR radio, she writes for a variety of publications, hosts the Let’s Talk SciComm podcast and MCs events. Jen was named the 2019 Unsung Hero of Australian Science Communication, is Ambassador for The Wilderness Society’s Nature Book Week and is a member of the Homeward Bound Faculty, a global leadership program for women and non-binary people in STEMM. She’s also a member of the Board at The Wilderness Society and the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance. Jen’s first popular science book, ‘Why am I like this? The science behind your weirdest thoughts and habits’ was published by Hardie Grant in 2024.

Dr Michael Wheeler

I am a Lecturer in Science Communication at the University of Melbourne. I coordinate and teach subjects that equip science students with a range of skills to better communicate their work to a variety of audiences. I am also the co-founder and co-host of the Let’s Talk SciComm podcast with A/Prof Jen Martin. The podcast aims to demystify effective communication for scientists and science students in Australia and overseas. I regularly run science communication workshops, speak at events, and judge science communication competitions. I also hold a joint appointment at Deakin University as an Executive Dean Health Research Fellow. My research focusses on understanding how physical activity and sedentary behaviour affect cardiovascular, cognitive, and metabolic function. My main area of expertise is in conducting clinical trial studies in this area, with a more recent focus on epidemiology, free living studies, and digital health.

Dr Graham Phillips

Graham began his career as a scientist, with a PhD in astrophysics, before moving into the media to communicate science. He is most well known for his many years as the host and a producer-reporter on ABC TV’s primetime science television programme Catalyst. But he has also been a regular science reporter and commentator on all the commercial television networks, including being a presenter on the international science and technology programme Beyond Tomorrow. He has written for every major newspaper in Australia, and has had regular science columns in a number of them. He has contributed to countless hours of science radio as both an interviewer and interviewee, and has presented and written podcast series, including an eight-part series on the search for extraterrestrial life for Amazon’s podcast arm Audible. He’s written documentaries, had four popular science books published and currently writes opinion pieces for the Sydney Morning Herald, talks on ABC radio about science, and is writing another book.

Dr Linden Ashcroft

Linden grew up in country Victoria on the lands of the Yorta Yorta people and teaches weather and climate science as well as science communication. When she’s not teaching people how to share their science with the world, Linden researches the past to help us prepare for the future. By exploring the climate of Australia using historical documents and weather observations, she combines her love of science and stories.

Linden’s career has spanned the academic, not-for-profit and government sectors, including a stint at the Bureau of Meteorology, managing a database of millions of citizen science observations from across Australia, and a postdoc in Spain. She is a National Council member of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, an editor of the peer-reviewed journal Climate of the Past, and regularly contributes to media discussions and community activities around climate change.

She has been recognised by many awards for her research and outreach work in climate change, including being selected as a 2019–2020 Science and Technology Australia Superstar of STEM, received the 2020 Australian and Meteorological Society Science Outreach award, and was selected as a Victorian Tall Poppy by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science in 2021 for her excellence in scientific research and outreach.

Dr Catriona Nguyen-Robertson

Dr Catriona Vi Nguyen-Robertson (she/her) is a singing scientist: she sings in the laboratory and contemplates science in the shower. After researching the immune system, she has become an award-winning science communicator.

She teaches the next generation of scientific researchers how to communicate their work to various audiences at the University of Melbourne. On the side, you can often catch her singing and dancing around Scienceworks, teaching science concepts to audiences of all ages.

Catriona is also the Executive Officer of the Inspiring Victoria Partnership Board, on the Queers in Science National Board, and is Chair of the National Science Week Victorian Coordinating Committee. She regularly engages with science outreach programs to engage the community in science, sharing science content on radio, online, and in schools.