Tom Carruthers

Dr Tom J Carruthers is a science communicator, thinker and creative based in Canberra, Australia. He passionately advocates for diversity and equity, the need for science engagement to go beyond scientific literacy, and to increase the community’s value of specialist expertise across all sectors. He is a thought leader, calling for better recognition of science communication research learnings within the practice, and an appreciation of science communication expertise in government and the broader community.

Tom is the former Strategist and Operations Manager in the communications team at the Australian Academy of Science, where led campaigns and messaging on critical topics such as COVID-19, climate change, and gender equity. He is also the former co-CEO of Pint of Science Australia, where he established a national peer-mentoring and training model that has been supporting the STEM engagement sector in Australia for the past 6 years. More recently, he worked with Ogilvy PR, consulting businesses in strengthening their ESG policies, initiatives and communications.

Tom holds a PhD in biological chemistry (ANU), a master’s in science communication outreach (ANU), and has experience working in the Australian university, government, not-for-profit and private sectors. He is president of the Australian Science Communicators and recently appointed adjunct lecturer in science communication at the University of Western Australia. He is also currently the Media Director at the science communication agency, Science in Public.