Presenters

PETER KLINKEN

Chief Scientist of Western Australia

Prior to his appointment as WA Chief Scientist, Professor Klinken was a research scientist and executive director of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. His research interests included the biology of red blood cell formation and cancer such as leukaemia.

DIANNE SIKA-PAOTONU

University of Otago, Aotearoa/NZ

Dianne Sika-Paotonu is an Associate Professor (Immunology) and Associate Dean (Pacific) for the Division of Health Sciences at the University of Otago. She is a Fulbright Scholar, an experienced research scientist, educator, science communicator and commentator.

TEMILADE SESAN

University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Temilade Sesan is a sociologist with over 10 years’ research and consulting experience in international development. Her research examines the socioeconomic dimensions of the food-energy-waste nexus, especially as they intersect with issues of the environment, gender, health and urban planning in Africa.

Temilade's Keynote is kindly sponsored by the Research School of Physics, Australian National University, The International Communication Association and the Australian Science Communicators.

JOSEPH ROCHE

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Joseph Roche is an Associate Professor in Science Education at Trinity College Dublin. He is the Director of Research at the School of Education and leads the Science & Society Research Group which coordinates international research projects on science communication, informal learning, citizen science, public engagement, and higher education science.

DENISE
SMITH-ALI OAM

Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation

Denise is the Senior Linguist/Language Coordinator for NBLCAC, working collaboratively with CSIRO scientists on the ALA’s Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK) project, Denise believes it is important to have Elders on Country, with scientists, to share knowledge from an Indigenous point of view and teach the younger staff from the centre how important it is to reclaim and revitalise Noongar language.

MICHAEL
HOPKIN

The Conversation

Michael Hopkin is the Deputy Chief of Staff of The Conversation. He is an accomplished energy journalist with a keen focus on energy-related topics, Michael has been successful in providing his readers with well-researched, informative, and engaging articles. Michael joined The Conversation after several years as a journalist with Fairfax, The West Australian, and others. Before moving to Australia from his native UK, he was a senior news and features writer for Nature.

KAELIN
DE LONG

Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Kaelin DeLong is a Junior Lecturer & Researcher at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam working on master’s courses about science communication, science journalism, and inter/transdisciplinarity. She is a Researcher on the COALESCE project, which is building the future European Competence Centre for Science Communication, and a Science Communication Trainer for an Aurora project that provides dialogue trainings at various European universities.

AEDAN
POPE

Principal Engineer at Google DeepMind

Aedan Pope is a Principal Engineer at Google DeepMind. He is currently working on generative AI efforts (Gemini) in modelling, evaluations, and applications.

RENAE
SAYERS

Director, Strategic Initiatives | School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

When your career includes running away to join the Science Circus, getting the Prime Minister into the lab and helping launch things into space, you know scicomm is at the heart of the journey.