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SCIENTISTS AND THE ABC STRIKE UP NEW RELATIONSHIPS
26 August 2005

ABC Radio National is pleased to announce the inaugural ABC Australian Academy of Science Media Fellowships, a new partnership between the ABC Radio National Science Unit and the Australian Academy of Science.

Three Australian scientists will improve their communication skills and understanding of the media by spending six weeks with ABC Science in radio, TV and online.

Whilst the scientists learn how to develop good relationships with the media and get an inside view of a large media organisation, the ABC benefits from a deeper relationship with the Australian scientific community, helping it stay at the forefront of science broadcasting.

The Australian Academy of Science is the leading science body in Australia. The new partnership has allowed the continuation of the Media Fellowships program for 2005, previously co-funded with the Department of Education Science and Technology.

The three Science Media Fellows for 2005 are:

Debbie Richards, senior lecturer in the Department of Computing at Macquarie University, is also the department's Industry and director of external relations. She is responsible for outreach and service activities with schools, industry and the wider community.

Ian Goodwin is an earth scientist with specialisations in climatology, paleoclimatology and coastal geoscience. He is head of the Discipline of Earth Sciences, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, at the University of Newcastle.

Sheree Cairney is a cognitive neuroscientist working in Aboriginal health and is a senior research fellow with the Menzies School of Health Research at Charles Darwin University, NT.

This year's program will be held for six weeks from Monday, 17 October. The fellows will spend the first week in a more formal intensive training course where ABC staff and outsiders give presentations on various aspects of their work. The participants also do practical exercises in writing, interviewing and other media skills.

Three further scientists have been invited to attend the week-long course only: David Hobbs, senior rehabilitation engineer at NovitaTech in Adelaide; Dr Daniel James, research Fellow in the School of Microelectronic Engineering at Griffith University, Brisbane; and Pia Winberg, completing a PhD in marine ecology at University of Wollongong.