I really enjoy science communication and astronomy outreach. I think it’s both really important and really fun! Here you can find details, links and photos from some of my recent and favourite outreach projects. You can also read my blog and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.
The Cosmic Savannah
My colleague, Dr Daniel Cunnama, and I are the creators, producers and hosts of a new podcast called The Cosmic Savannah. Aimed at a general audience, it showcases the incredible knowledge, discoveries and opportunities from the field of astronomy in South Africa.
The podcast started in April 2019 and has had over 100 thousand downloads from around the globe! African astronomy is something that everyone on this continent, and planet, can be very proud of.
So have a listen yourself! You can find us on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts or wherever you usually get your podcasts.
You can also listen via our website www.thecosmicsavannah.com. On the website you’ll find the show notes for each episode, including the full transcription, pictures and related links.
Join us for a safari through the skies!
Media appearances
Occasionally I pop up on the silver screen! Here’s a few of my recent TV appearances.
CarteBlanche (M-net, South Africa).
My bit starts about 4 minutes in.
Expresso Morning Show – Final Frontiers segment (SABC3, South Africa)
The Naked Scientists in Croatia
In October 2017 I collaborated with the Australian Embassy in Croatia to bring Dr Chris Smith – from the internationally renowned Naked Scientists radio show and podcast – to Zagreb, Croatia for a two-day science communication extravaganza!
We ran a Science-Meets-Government session, a presentation skills workshop for students, an academic reception, a media meet-and-greet, high school visit, podcast interviews with scientists and a live show for the general public. It was incredible fun and I’ve written a series of blog posts about the experience, which you can find on The Naked Scientists website. You can watch the entire Naked Scientists live show here.
Press Release
In January 2021, we put out a press release for our new paper on giant radio galaxies! You can find the press release here and read my blog post about the work here.
You can also watch me chatting about the work on eNCA in the video below.
In June 2017, my research group at the University of Zagreb published a series of papers in a special edition of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Alongside this, we published a press release explaining our work to the media and general public. You can check it out here. We also produced a series of short videos about our work. You can watch them on the COSMOS You Tube page in the VLA-COSMOS 3GHz Large Project playlist.
Here’s the feature video we made:
Public Lectures
I sometimes give public lectures or school talks around Australia, Croatia and South Africa. I’m always amazed at the incredible and intelligent questions asked by school students.
In 2017 I was also invited by the Australian Embassy in Croatia to present to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during her visit to Zagreb. We discussed robots in space and the upcoming Square Kilometre Array telescope!
