Invited Speaker

Affiliation: The University of Melbourne

The Art of Communicating Effectively about Science

Abstract

Communicating technical knowledge to non-technical audiences is a challenge and a skill that takes practice. Even the best evidence-based recommendations can be unhelpful if your target audience isn’t able to understand them or doesn’t see their relevance. An experienced science communicator, Associate Professor Jen Martin will share advice on how to effectively communicate technical information to diverse audiences. In particular, she’ll discuss to how to plan, design and deliver a presentation that will hook your audience’s attention and make your recommendations relevant, engaging and accessible to different audiences. She’ll share questions that you should ask yourself every time you prepare to speak with an audience and consider the most effective ways to deal with the nerves associated with public speaking. Finally, she’ll discuss the differences between speaking to an in-person audience and presenting in an online setting.

Get to Know Jennifer Martin

Associate Professor Jen Martin (@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 communicate with different audiences and have impact. She also practises what she preaches: for more than 15 years she’s been talking about science each week on 3RRR radio, she writes for a variety of publications, hosts podcasts and MCs events. Jen was named the 2019 Unsung Hero of Australian Science Communication and is Ambassador for The Wilderness Society’s Nature Book Week. Jen’s first popular science book, ‘Why am I like this? The science behind your weirdest thoughts and habits’ will be published in 2022.