Inspiring Victoria

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Stupidity? Diversity, Inclusion and AI
2020-10-15 19:00 - 20:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Online, Australia
The advent of Artificial Intelligence came with promises to overcome the human limitations of speed, processing and information storage, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for how we live and how we work. However, AI has yet to deliver on those promises and now faces ethical and moral dilemmas never encountered before. With COVID-19 now shaking the fabric of every society without discrimination on the basis of gender, race or faith, the world has become even more reliant on technology and data for sustaining the social order. We now compensate for social distancing with virtual connections and Zoom’s boxes have replaced human interactions as the COVID-19 normal.
Meanwhile, the history of our global civilisation is marked by racial, gender and economic divides. A product of human intelligence, Artificial Intelligence has been shown to exacerbate our human biases. It is time to re-evaluate our increasing dependence on technology and AI and question what it means for diversity and inclusion. Join Dr Muneera Bano on a time travelling journey; exploring how our decisions in the present, based on our experiences of the past, are critical for the future directions of humanity and AI.
About the Speaker
Dr Muneera Bano is a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at Deakin University. She specialises in the field of socio-technical domains of software engineering, focusing on human-centred technologies. Muneera works at the intersection between computers and humans – looking for ways to engineer technology to work better with the people that use it. Her research interests include requirements engineering, service orientation, sentiment analysis and evidence-based software engineering.
A passionate advocate for women in STEM, Muneera Bano was announced as the Most Influential Asian-Australian Under 40 in 2019. A ‘Superstar of STEM and member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee for Science and Technology Australia, Muneera has a strong commitment to smash society’s gender and cultural assumptions about scientists. She is the Go Girl, Go For IT 2020 Ambassador with the aim to inspire the next generation of girls in STEM careers.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to join proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Spinning Yarns
2020-10-22 19:00 - 20:30
Introspection is something of a feature of our lives in 2020; never mind the trajectory of the global pandemic and the fate of the planet, how did we each, individually start out from our distant personal origins to arrive at this curious point in time and space? So we’ve asked four scholars, scientists and seekers of a better world: What’s keeping you off the streets, and up at night?
The unsurprising answer is that a life of enquiry is never short of things to do! Throughout Victoria’s 2020 pandemic lockdowns, our speakers have dauntlessly continued their labours, producing scientific research and products for the public good, campaigning for a brighter future informed by scientific knowledge, or dutifully preserving the beautiful legacy of scientific instrumentation from earlier times, holding something of the story of long-gone people rising to the challenges of their own times.
Join us for four, short presentations from four very different Councillors of the Royal Society of Victoria, variously taking us through earlier times, their passion projects of today and concerns for tomorrow.
Speakers:

Function, Precision and Beauty: Finding and Preserving the Instruments of Ludwig Oertling – Mrs Nicola Williams
I was a lecturer in chemistry at Monash in the 1980s, during the time when university governance was changing from a collegial to a business model. One result was that anything that didn’t earn money was considered not worth keeping, and this included old instruments and glassware. I’d been interested in historical instruments for some years, so I began to collect the instruments which were being thrown out ‘as the space was needed.’

There and Back Again: My Roundabout Path to Seasonal Prediction (and why I love it) – Dr Catherine de Burgh-Day
My academic education started with a desire to study Meteorology, culminated in a PhD in Astrophysics, and then led to me working at the Bureau of Meteorology. It may seem like it was a bit of a detour, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, and it turns out Astrophysics and Seasonal prediction have a lot in common! I’m going to give you a brief history of my still-short career, and also tell you about what I work on now: Everything to do with predicting the conditions in the upcoming weeks and seasons, from developing the models and science through to talking to farmers about what they need to know on the ground. I hope that by the end of this you’ll see why every change in direction I took along the way is one I am glad I did, and each one taught me things I bring to the table at the BoM every day.

What Keeps Me Up at Night – Mr Rob Gell
Familiar to many as a television presenter of Victoria’s weather for many years, Rob is today a director of three companies working to deliver positive sustainability outcomes. They are all exploring new technology opportunities in environmental monitoring, energy management and water conservation: Attentis® has developed Australia’s first real-time integrated environmental sensor network operating at regional scale; ReThink Sustainability offers range of sustainability advisory services, particularly in energy efficiency and management; and Circular Things has developed the Eco Water Wall, an innovative water tank design.

Loose Ends, and Going Round in Circles: A Life [Good] in Medical Research – Professor David Walker
Professor David Walker is a physiologist with a long interest in fetal and neonatal development. His research has become centred on perinatal brain damage and the causes of cerebral palsy. Previously situated with the Hudson Institute and now working with RMIT’s School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, David’s major research questions are around the basic chemical energy system employed by all body cells.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to join proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Soil Carbon: Climate Solutions Right Under Our Feet
2020-11-12 19:00 - 20:30
A joint presentation with Soil Science Australia
What if we could reverse climate change, increase biodiversity and feed everyone? Does that sound like a win-win-win scenario for people and the planet? Join Dr Samantha Grover as she explores the possibilities of soil carbon. From microbial processes to global policy settings, she will discuss how carbon moves from the atmosphere into soils, how land management can increase or decrease the stores of carbon in our soils and how we, as food consumers, can adjust the settings in our food systems to help achieve net zero emissions in our lifetimes.
With examples from the Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab’s research, we will virtually visit Melbourne backyards, Australian agricultural landscapes, Victoria’s beloved Alpine National Park and our northern neighbour Indonesia’s high carbon peat soils, shining a light on the fascinating secrets of soil carbon underground.
About the Speaker
Dr Samantha Grover is a soil scientist and lecturer at RMIT University. She leads the Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab, whose research explores the connections between soils, climate change and people.
As a soil scientist, she applies techniques from soil physics, soil chemistry and soil microbiology with micrometeorology to explore the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. She collaborates with economists, social scientists and policy analysts, as well as other biological and physical scientists, to generate whole-of-system knowledge. Through her interdisciplinary work, university teaching, public engagement as a Superstar of STEM, Victorian President of Soil Science Australia, various Board and Committee roles and a growing media profile, Samantha communicates her research to create impact. As we enter the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, she aspires to make a nationally and internationally significant contribution to reversing climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to follow the proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Inspired by Nature: Engineering Multifunctional Materials
2020-11-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
Dr Nisa Salim’s research focuses on novel designs, materials and scalable formulations for the production of multifunctional materials inspired by nature, a promising approach to help solve human challenges.
The research underpins the molecular level understanding of the structure of these materials and how these are translated into functionalities at the macro level. In a recent discovery, Nisa’s team created ‘hair-like’ fibres that are extremely light weight, yet strong and can also efficiently store energy. These fibres are designed in such a way as to have tiny holes that are interconnected and uniformly scattered within the fibres; similar to a ‘sea sponge’. These fibres are then glued together with a special binder polymer to make composites; exactly the way a silk worm makes its cocoon by combining two proteins.
Such composite structures can perform a double duty; for example, acting as a strong, lightweight body part for a vehicle, and also as a battery to power that vehicle. Join the 2020 winner of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award to explore how these bio-inspired materials will support the faster realisation of autonomous emergency care and sustainable e-mobility.
About Dr Nisa Salim
Dr Nisa Salim is a Vice-Chancellor’s Initiative Research Fellow at the Swinburne University of Technology. She received her PhD from Deakin University in 2013 in materials engineering. Nisa’s research is mainly focused on advanced carbon materials and functional fibres. She has published over 35 high impact journal papers, 3 book chapters, and 1 patent. Nisa has won many awards in her research career including AINSE Gold Medal for outstanding PhD and Smart Geelong Early Researcher award, a Victoria Fellowship, an Endeavour Fellowship, an Alfred Deakin Fellowship and many more. Nisa’s vision is to develop smart, engineered materials that are enablers for digitalisation and the Internet of Things – living materials that sense, actuate and harvest energy.
Her research interests are in nanomaterials, nanostructured materials, graphene, materials science and polymers at interfaces. She supervises a number of Masters and PhD students, and teaches in the domains of nanofabrication, nanomaterials, graphene and materials science.

State of the Climate 2020
2020-12-02 16:00 - 17:30
The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO play an important role in monitoring, analysing and communicating observed changes in Australia’s climate. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability. These changes affect many Australians, particularly the changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought.
Australia will need to plan for and adapt to climate change.
November 2020 marks the release of the State of the Climate report. This sixth, biennial report draws on the latest monitoring, science and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia’s climate. This report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia and includes new information about Australia’s climate of the past, present and future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry and communities.
Join Dr Lynette Bettio to unpack the latest State of the Climate report, the changes we’ve seen and the implications for the future, informing the important decisions that will need to be made to help our country to persist and thrive in the years to come.

A joint briefing between the Royal Society of Victoria and the Victorian Departments of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR).
About the Speaker
Dr Lynette Bettio leads the Long-range forecasting team at the Bureau of Meteorology in the Operational Climate Services Section, which is responsible for the preparation and analysis of Australia’s instrumental climate record, issuing outlooks of likely climate conditions for the coming seasons. Lynette examines and communicates on changes to Australia’s climate including long-term trends in rainfall and temperature and the interaction with extreme events. The communication of seasonal forecasts, to help in part to manage this variability, is another passion. Another focus is drought across Australia and how the Bureau can best communicate and inform around this.
Lynette had an upbringing in north-eastern Victoria, and moved to Melbourne to study science at the University of Melbourne. An interest in weather and climate, gained in part from growing up in an agricultural area, led to a major in climate sciences. She continued this interest with a PhD in climate science from the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the World Meteorological Organization expert team on drought.

Scaling Australian Manufacturing through Digital Platforms
2020-12-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is also referred to Industry 4.0 in Europe, where it has been framed as the “4th industrial revolution.” It describes the digitalisation of modern manufacturing.
Industry 4.0 will be an enabler for the re-shoring of Australian manufacturing in a cost effective and globally competitive way, even for low volume production and small batch sizes. It will enhance our sovereign manufacturing capabilities and, where the COVID pandemic has revealed gaps in our vital supply chains, we will now have the capability to plug these gaps. This is where Australia has an opportunity to make the most of technology transfer from the mining sector to our manufacturing sector.
Digital twins of manufacturing processes were once described in the vaguest of terms, but have now been clearly defined as a faithful digital representation of a product, its production and performance. Further, cognitive digital twins (which leverage cognitive computing, the IIOT, data science and advanced analytics) can enable real time data analytics from manufacturing that lead to the development of self-correcting manufacturing processes. They also accelerate the transition from idea, to design, to prototype, to production.
To demonstrate the capabilities of these new tools and processes, a new, immersive facility has been built to showcase the digitalisation of manufacturing. Supported by the Australian Federal Government, built by Swinburne University and CSIRO and located in the centre of the Clayton additive manufacturing precinct, the National Industry 4.0 Testlab for composite additive manufacturing is focussed on a world-first process for digitally enabled manufacturing of carbon fibre-reinforced composites at an industrial scale.
Its goal is to enable Small and Medium Enterprises to test new technologies and business models created with Industry 4.0 techniques in a pre-competitive environment, with the aim of minimising technical and financial risk. It will act as a hub for significant international collaborations, manufacturing products to support aerospace, automotive, space and satellite technologies, as well as the emerging urban air mobility market.
About the Speaker
Professor Bronwyn Fox is the 2020 recipient of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. She is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the Swinburne University of Technology. Prior to this, Professor Fox was founding Director of the University’s Manufacturing Futures Research Institute with a mission to support the transition of Australia’s manufacturing sector to Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution.
After attaining her Bachelor of Science (chemistry) from the University of Melbourne, Dr Fox received her PhD in Engineering from the Australian National University in 2001 on the topic of aerospace composites. Since that time, Bronwyn has grown her own internationally recognised research groups, industry projects, and national industry de-risking infrastructure at Deakin University (2001-2015) and at Swinburne University (2015-present). She has created a Composites Manufacturing Ecosystem in Australia that brings together industry-research partnerships, contributes to a vibrant national manufacturing capability, supplies products and services globally, and plays an important role in high tech job creation. These accomplishments are underpinned by her research excellence, her innovative methods for building research-industry partnerships, and her leadership.
Professor Fox was one of the founders of the Carbon Nexus facility at Deakin University, which catalysed the creation of an industrial research precinct. Leveraging her specific knowledge of materials science and engineering, Professor Fox has built multidisciplinary teams to work with the manufacturing sector to ensure they are digitally equipped and linked into global supply chains.
Bronwyn is an internationally recognised expert on carbon fibre and composite materials and is Chair of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (Victorian Division), a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Schools Event: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
2021-02-11 10:00 - 12:00
Live stream with us on the International Day for Women and Girls in Science and be inspired!
Secondary students and teachers are invited to join this senior Victorian forum to explore the opportunities and challenges for girls and women in exploring careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics (STEM).
Get a sneak preview of what lies ahead for young women considering a career in the sciences and join the discussion. The scientist’s world of enquiry, invention and intervention offers us a wealth of important roles, from protecting threatened species from extinction, to protecting our society from the next pandemic, to shaping the future through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and of artificial intelligence and the way we work in an increasingly automated world.
Join the live event at 10am-12pm, Thursday 11 February 2021. Passcode: [REDACTED]
Event program

10.00am: Welcome and introduction
10.10am: Be inspired by speaker’s Dr Muneera Bano (Deakin University), Associate Professor Misty Jenkins (WEHI) and Dr Amy Coetsee (Zoos Victoria), to explore the opportunities for careers in STEM.
10.50am: Panel discussion – Listen to Dr Gillian Sparkes, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Dr Amanda Caples, Victoria’s Lead Scientist, and Dr Andrea Hinwood, Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist.
11.20am: Virtual open Q & A – Be part of the conversation with our Panellists and Speakers.
12.00pm: Event concludes

This event is delivered by the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Dr Gillian Sparkes in partnership with the Royal Society of Victoria. The event is an annual collaboration between the Commissioner, Victoria’s Lead Scientist Dr Amanda Caples and Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist Dr Andrea Hinwood.

Stewardship of Country - The Common Ground
2021-02-24 18:00 - 20:00
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.

Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the first in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
Webinar One – The Common Ground: A Convergence of Traditions
This first webinar in the series focuses on the convergence of knowledge traditions, acknowledging the capacity for traditional European farming practices to adapt, the remarkable advances in the ecological sciences based on European classification systems, and the complex Australian Indigenous knowledge systems developed and maintained over a truly astonishing stretch of time, offering a deep cultural understanding and relationships with “country” to help us determine our common future in Australia.

Speakers (from left):
Keynote: Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham (National Congress of Australia’s First Nations, University of Queensland)
Presenters: Professor Peter Bridgewater (Canberra University), Mr Justin O’Brien, Dr Chris Brady & Mr Peter Christopherson (Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation), Mr David Pollock (Wooleen Station)

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Stewardship of Country - Resilience and Regeneration
2021-03-10 18:00 - 20:00
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.
Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the second in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
Webinar Two: Resilience, Regeneration and Escaping the Iron Law of Business-as-Usual
This second webinar in the series focuses on untangling the knots in our system that frustrate beneficial change, from the fixed thinking enforced by our political culture to the slow-changing traditions of agricultural land management and business practices founded in European soils and ecosystems. We also look at how business, entrepreneurship and private property have an effective role to play in conserving and rebuilding ecosystems and biodiversity.

Speakers (from left):

Keynote: Dr Nicholas Gruen (CEO, Lateral Economics)
Presenters: Ms Carolyn Hall (The Mulloon Institute), Ms Jody Brown (La Trobe Station), Mr Nigel Sharp (Odonata).

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Stewardship of Country - From Past to Future
2021-03-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Online, Australia
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.
Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the final in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
From Past to Future – Australian Stewardship of Country
This final webinar in the series takes us to a broad view of the past to define our approach to the future. We range from the natural history of our continent’s diverse landscapes and species, including the traditional approaches taken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to support that diversity, to redefining our relationships with the living world to better rise to the challenges we must collectively face to secure our country’s future.

Speakers (from left):

Keynote: TBC
Presenters: Professor Kingsley Dixon (Curtin University), Dr Michelle Maloney (Australian Earth Laws Alliance, Griffith University), Mr Barney Foran (Charles Sturt University)

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Changing Forests in a Changing Climate: What Might the Future Hold?
2021-03-25 19:00 - 20:30
Over the past 25 years the forests of south-eastern Australia have taken a pounding — the Millennium Drought, the Eastern Alps/Canberra fires of 2003, the Great Divide bushfires of 2006/7, the Black Saturday fires of 2009, the 2017-19 drought, and, most recently, the unprecedented 2019/20 fire season. Model projections of climate in the coming decades suggest that the frequency and intensity of droughts and fire are likely to increase.
This raises an obvious, and troubling, question: Are the region’s forests able to persist under this onslaught of climate-driven disturbance?
In answering this question, we need to consider whether there is a role for forest management and, if so, what that might look like. Join Professor Patrick Baker, who will put recent climate variability into a broader historical context, discuss the implications of expected future climates for forests and forest dynamics, and consider forest management practices that might help to buffer south-eastern Australia’s forests against climate-related disturbances.
About the Speaker
Professor Patrick Baker is a Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on native forests, their dynamics, and the factors that influence them. Over the past 20 years he has worked in three separate discipline areas – forest ecology, silviculture, and palaeoclimatology – to better understand how forest management might be used to make forests more resistant and resilient to various agents of global change.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
He is currently a Charles Bullard Fellow at Harvard University and was previously an ARC Future Fellow and an adjunct research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Before coming to Australia, Patrick was a research scientist for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and the US Forest Service.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Platypus and the Changing Environment - What's Needed to Help Populations Thrive in Future?
2021-04-01 10:00 - 11:00 | Online, Australia
What do platypus like to eat and where do they prefer to live? These fascinating and iconic animals feed only in water. In this presentation two scientists who have studied them from different perspectives, will bust myths about platypuses being fussy feeders who require pristine habitat.
Learn how we can all contribute to making our rivers a better place for platypus. Dr Richard Marchant (Senior Curator, Entomology, Museums Victoria) and Dr Melody Serena (Conservation Biologist, Australian Platypus Conservancy) will discuss the factors vital to maintain healthy platypus populations, based on over 30 years research in Victoria and NSW. Followed by discussion and questions from the audience.
Presented as part of Neighbourhood Houses Victoria’s Climate Change and Environment Program.
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The Anthropocene: Where on Earth are we Going?
2021-04-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
Human pressures on the planet as a whole – the ‘Earth System’ – have now become so great that scientists have proposed that we have left the Holocene, the 11,700-year geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home, and have entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. Originally proposed by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, the Anthropocene is characterised by extremely rapid changes to the climate system driven primarily by human emissions of greenhouse gases and growing degradation of the planet’s biosphere, driven by a range of direct and indirect human pressures.
Where is the Anthropocene headed? The current trajectory of the Earth System is a rapid exit from the Holocene, accelerating towards a much hotter climate system and a degraded, ill-functioning biosphere. Perhaps most concerning is a possible ‘fork in the road’ beyond which lies ‘Hothouse Earth’. The key element of this trajectory is a ‘tipping cascade’, in which a series of interlinked tipping points – the melting of polar ice, the conversion of forest biomes to grasslands or savannas, changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation – take control of the trajectory of the Earth System and move it to a much hotter, biodiversity-impoverished, but stable state.
To avoid this possible tipping cascade requires fundamental changes to human societies. These changes include not only advances in technologies but also more fundamental changes in societal structures and core values. In essence, we must become stewards of the Earth System, based on transformed societies that focus on systems approaches to economies, a greater level of equity within societies, and a focus on restoration of a well-functioning biosphere. All of these changes are possible, but they will only occur if we develop a life-centric approach to our existence rather than a human-centric approach. Indigenous Australians have developed rich traditions and might show us the way forward to a much more life-centric society.
About the Speaker

Professor Will Steffen is an Earth System scientist. He is a Councillor on the publicly-funded Climate Council of Australia that delivers independent expert information about climate change, an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU); Canberra, a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden; and a Fellow at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm. He is the chair of the jury for the Volvo Environment Prize; a member of the International Advisory Board for the Centre for Collective Action Research, Gothenburg University, Sweden; and a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the Sub-committee on Quaternary Stratigraphy.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
From 1998 to mid-2004, Professor Steffen was Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, based in Stockholm. His research interests span a broad range within climate and Earth System science, with an emphasis on incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and on sustainability and climate change.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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2021 Midsumma Lecture Series - Queers in Science
2021-04-21 18:30 - 19:30 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
As part of the Midsumma Festival, QueersInScience is presenting a two-part lecture series displaying the amazing work of queer scientists in Australia. This year’s Series is being held in partnership with Melbourne Museum and the Royal Society of Victoria, supported by the Inspiring Victoria program. LGBTQIA+ experts will present four talks on timely scientific topics across two events.
Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Wednesday 21 April, 6.30pm–7.30pm
Talk 1: “A Retirement Postponed by a Virus”
Professor Michael J Toole
Pronouns: he/him
Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Talk 2: “Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic”
Professor Deborah Williamson
Pronouns: she/her
Doherty Institute / Royal Melbourne Hospital / Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia
Director of Microbiology, Lab Head, Dame Kate Campbell Fellow
Lecture 2: Ecology now
Wednesday 5 May, 6.30pm–7.30pm
Talk 1: “Sex in a changing world”
Professor Bob Wong
Pronouns: he/him
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Head, Behavioural Ecology Research Group
Talk 2: “Ancestral biology and designing a connection to your traditional ecological knowledge”
Guy Ritani
Pronouns: they/them
Creative Director of PermaQueer, Queensland, Australia
There is the choice between an in-person experience attending the lectures at Melbourne Museum and afterwards have the opportunity to mingle with the speakers and audience members over some nibbles and drinks, or alternatively to enjoy our lecture from the comfort of your home using our online streaming option.
Prices: Museums Victoria Member $8 | Adult $12 | Concession $10 | Online webinar $5
If you require financial assistance to attend this event please contact QueersInScience via email.
FIND OUT MORE AND BUY TICKETS AT MUSEUMSVICTORIA.COM.AU

STEM and Society: SealSpotters
2021-05-12 18:00 - 19:00
Dr Rebecca McIntosh
Mr Ross Holmberg
Join Dr Rebecca McIntosh and Ross Holmberg from the Phillip Island Nature Parks team as they prepare to launch the annual SealSpotter Challenge, when citizen scientists around the globe jump online to count Australian fur seals and contribute to vital conservation research.
The SealSpotter program allows anyone with a computer to help with the management and protection of our oceans by counting seals in images captured with a UAV drone. The count enables scientists to analyse seal population and marine debris entanglement data faster and more accurately, leading to a greater understanding of the fur seal’s world and the threats they face.
Last year citizen scientists participated from every continent on the planet – including Antarctica! By offering a taste of what scientists in the field see and experience, Rebecca and Ross and the team at Phillip Island Nature Parks have started a movement, bringing the wider community along with them to affect necessary behavioural change and achieve their conservation goals.
How many seals will you find?

Streaming online via Facebook Live and the Victorian Parliament’s website.

This special series of online presentations explores the science and stories behind the game-changing work undertaken by Victoria’s scientific community. Our leading experts will talk about the work they’re doing to engage the community and affect meaningful change in their field of study and in our everyday lives. Presented by the Victorian Parliament, with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. A part of the Inspiring Victoria program.
Images courtesy of Phillip Island Nature Parks.

Why the World Needs Ecologists
2021-05-13 19:00 - 20:30
We are drowning in bad news. Two pages into the (1000pg) United Nations Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and you’ll be pleading for Tolstoy. Even David Attenborough is depressing these days.
Ecosystems collapse and species loss is being documented across the planet, with profound existential ramifications. Habitat degradation and loss remains the key driver of biodiversity loss, but climate change and invasive species promise to compound the damages we have wrought.
To save you days of morbid reading, Professor Brendan Wintle will provide a short and cheerful summary of the global extinction crisis, including Australia’s prominent and expanding role in species’ extirpation.
“To live without hope is to cease to live” (Dostoyevsky). So Brendan will celebrate the hopeful and crucial role that ecologists can play (and are playing) in co-designing and implementing solutions to the extinction crisis in partnership with private land conservation organisations, Indigenous land managers, developers, and governments. Science, civil society, business and policy makers can work constructively to bring the transformative change needed to ‘bend the curve’.
Brendan will give positive examples of some great collaborations that seek to keep our unique species, ecosystems and cultures intact, and will finish with a suite of practical measures that society and individuals can pursue to bring benefits to nature and people.
About the Speaker

Professor Brendan Wintle is the Director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, based at the University of Melbourne. He specializes in modelling and dealing with uncertainty in environmental decisions, and measuring cost-effectiveness of conservation programs.
He has served on Forest Stewardship Council reference committees, and various Commonwealth and State science advisory bodies including the Regional Sustainability Planning Advisory Committee, the Monitoring and Evaluation (MERI) advisory group, and the ‘Save the Tasmanian Devil’ Science Advisory Group.
Brendan completed a Forestry Degree in 1994 before working as a senior forest policy officer in the Queensland State Government. He completed his PhD in 2004 entitled “Characterizing and dealing with uncertainty in species distribution models” at the University of Melbourne. He won an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on the design of wildlife monitoring programs before taking up a position with the University of Melbourne’s School of Botany as a lecturer in Conservation Ecology.
He holds an ARC Future Fellowship: “Climate adaptation strategies for conserving biodiversity in rapidly changing landscapes”.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket. Presented with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program.
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Next-Gen Spatial Tech for Forest Management
2021-05-20 18:00 - 19:30
New spatial technologies – like remote sensing, global positioning systems, ground based sensors, monitoring and other ICT interventions – are set to revolutionise our understanding of our forests and improve our capacity to manage and sustain them. Join three proponents of these powerful new systems for environmental monitoring to learn more about their potential applications for the management of water resources, forest growth rates and bushfire risks, enabling our forest estates to adapt and persist through rapidly changing conditions.
Keynote:
The Democratisation of Remote Sensing
Professor Nicholas Coops
Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing
Head pro tem, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia
It’s hard to remember a time when we couldn’t experience our world through images produced by satellites and airplanes. These remote images have allowed us to see things as never before, to gain insight and shift perspective.
The technology has exploded in the past five years – it’s everywhere, with vast amounts of forestry data generated every day. Remote sensing – collecting imagery of the Earth’s surface – is cheaper and easier than ever before, and is revolutionizing the way we measure and monitor our forests. We can now see everything from a single leaf to the entire planet.
Professor Nicholas Coops is a researcher investigating innovative ways to use these technologies to help understand the process occurring within out forests and developing tools and methods to manage them sustainably. He is the most recent co-recipient of the Wallenberg Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Forest Science) for his work on the 3-PG model; the other two co-recipients were Australian Dr Joe Landsberg and American Dr Richard Waring. This groundbreaking work in developing forest growth models is based on tree ecophysiology, further developed for large area application using geospatial forest analysis and remote sensing techniques. Nicholas completed his PhD at RMIT University.
Presentation:
New, Precise Positioning Technologies for CM Accuracy and Near Real Time Geostationary Satellite Monitoring of Bushfires
Professor Allison Kealy
Acting Chief Research Officer & Research Program Director
Advanced Satellite Systems, Sensors and Intelligence, SmartSat CRC
Professor, Geospatial Science, RMIT University
Allison’s presentation will cover three new technologies: first, the dedicated new Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) that Australia is in the process of acquiring and its role in improving positioning accuracies to within 3- 5 cm; second, the operational introduction of Japan’s Himawari-8 geostationary remote sensing satellite in detecting and monitoring bushfires; and third, the AquaWatch IoT satellite sensor system for monitoring water usage.
Professor Allison Kealy is President and Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy, Commission 4 (Positioning and Applications) and co-chair of the International Federation of Surveying (FIG) Working Group 5.5 on Multi-Sensor Systems. Allison is a technical representative to the Institute of Navigation (US) and is the 2017 recipient of the US Institute of Navigation, Captain PVH Weems award for sustained contributions to advancing the art and science of navigation, and promoting and expanding the use of PNT among worldwide science and engineering communities. She is the most recent recipient of the Professional Eminence Award, Asia Pacific from the Spatial Industries Business Association – Geospatial Information and Technology Association (for Australia and New Zealand).
Presentation:
Situational Awareness for a Rapid Response: Enabling Early Detection of Natural Disasters Through Intelligent, Integrated Sensor Networks
Mr Rob Gell AM
Director, Attentis Pty Ltd
Director, ReThink Sustainability Pty Ltd
President, The Royal Society of Victoria
Among many roles, Rob is a Director of Attentis. This Australian company designs and manufactures intelligent multi-sensors that incorporate fire, flood and air composition detection with micro-climate weather, noise, vibration, ground movement and specialised sensing to deliver early notification of fire ignition, floods and airborne pathogens. Deployed across a regional network, these provide instant first responder notification, detailing the type of threat, location, images and live conditions to enable rapid investigation and the most effective deployment of resources, including aerial response and ground crews.
Rob’s expertise is as a geographer and a coastal geomorphologist, specialising in the environmental processes that continually shape our coastlines. Today he works as an environmental and communications consultant. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Inaugural Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.
Chair:

Dr Peter Woodgate
Chair, SmartSat CRC
Our MC for the evening will be Dr Peter Woodgate, Chair of the SmartSat CRC, Chair of the Steering Committee for the 2030 Space and Spatial Industry Growth Roadmap, which is building a growth roadmap for both industries, and a member of the Australian Space Agency’s Space Industry Leaders Forum. Peter is also Chair of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network. Peter served as CEO of the Australia and New Zealand Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) from June 2003 to December 2017 and has held senior positions with the Victorian Government and RMIT University.

Presented as a partnership between the Institute of Foresters of Australia, the Royal Society of Victoria and the Inspiring Victoria initiative.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV and IFA Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Location, Location, Location: Immune Protection by Tissue-Resident T-Cells
2021-05-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
T cells are specialised immune cells that are central to the complex, adaptive immune response to infection and disease. T cells are “trained” to recognise specific fragments or components of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens (e.g. a component of the influenza virus or tuberculosis bacterium).
During an infection, those T cells that recognise the infectious agent will be activated to respond – either killing infected cells or coordinating the attack. Following infection, a pool of memory T cells remains in the body to provide better and faster responses upon re-encountering the same pathogen because they are already trained to recognise it. Some memory T cells permanently reside in the site of infection where they are poised to mediate local immune responses should the pathogen come back. They are hence regarded as “tissue-resident memory T cells” and reside in tissues that are common sites of infection, including the skin, intestine and liver, where they elicit site-specific responses.
Join Professor Laura Mackay from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, whose work has been instrumental in the discovery of these cells and their role, to learn about recent advances in understanding the biological functions of these cells and their critical role in providing protection against infection and cancer. Laura’s work offers new insights to treatment and opportunities for the development of novel immunotherapies.

About the Speaker
Professor Laura Mackay holds appointments at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne and A*STAR in Singapore. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Bill & Melinda Gates International Scholar, a University of Melbourne Dame Kate Campbell Fellow, a Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation Senior Medical Research Fellow, and an NHMRC Leadership Investigator. She is also the current President of The Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA).
She is the recipient of Awards including The 2019 Prime Minister’s Prize for The Frank Fenner Life Scientist of the Year, The Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science), The Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, The Woodward Medal in Science and Technology, The Michelson Prize for Human Immunology and The Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award.
For a number of years, Laura has been at the forefront of research on immunological memory, and how memory T cells protect the body against disease. Her work was instrumental in the discovery that a subset of immune cells called tissue-resident memory T cells are critical for the control of infection and cancer. The current focus of her Laboratory is on the molecular signals that govern tissue-resident memory T cell differentiation, with a view to harness these cells for the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies against disease.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Liveable Cities for All: Are We There Yet?
2021-06-10 19:00 - 20:30
For many years, Melbourne has dined out on being recognised by The Economist as “the most liveable city in the world;” and is now second to Vienna. While this global recognition is a source of great pride and an excellent marketing tool – is this measure of “liveable” fit for purpose, when considering the residents of Melbourne?
Drawing on almost a decade of research, Professor Billie Giles-Corti will consider:

What is a liveable city?
How are we measuring liveability?
Are we creating liveable cities in Australia for all?
If not, why not?

And perhaps most importantly, why our definition of and support for “liveability” is important if we are concerned about creating cities that facilitate healthy and sustainable lifestyles that support both individual and planetary health.
About the Speaker
Professor Billie Giles-Corti is a Distinguished Professor at RMIT University and Director of the Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group.

She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow and directs the Centre for Urban Research’s Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research. Prior to joining RMIT in 2017, she was a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne and Director of the McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit.
For over two decades, Billie and a multi-disciplinary research team have been studying the impact of the built environment on health and wellbeing. She currently leads an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities established in 2014; which works closely with local, national and global policy-makers and practitioners. She is a Chief Investigator on the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, responsible for working with sectors outside of health; and leads a National Liveability Study funded by TAPPC. She is also the Liveability Lead for The Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, which is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Programme and her team is currently mapping policy-relevant urban liveability indicators across all Australian capital cities.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
She has published over 300 articles, book chapters and reports, and by citations, is ranked in the top 1% of researchers in her field globally. She is an Honorary Fellow of both the Planning Institute of Australia and the Public Health Association, a Fulbright Scholar and in 2016, was awarded an NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship as the top ranked female fellow in public health in 2015. She is a member of the Victorian Office of the Government Architect Design Review Panel; and from 2003-2016 was a member of the Heart Foundation’s National Physical Activity Committee (Chair 2007-2009).
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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STEM and Society: The Anthropocene
2021-06-16 18:00 - 19:00
Human pressures on the planet as a whole – the ‘Earth System’ – have now become so great that scientists have proposed that we have now left the Holocene, the geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home for the last 11,700 years. It’s proposed we’ve entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, characterised by extremely rapid changes to the climate system and the biosphere, driven primarily by a range of direct and indirect human pressures.
Professor Will Steffen
Professor Brendan Wintle
To understand what these changes mean for nature, ecosystems, and the future of humanity, and what we can do about it, join Professor Will Steffen, an Earth System scientist and researcher at the Australian National University, and Professor Brendan Wintle, Director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub based at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Steffen’s research focuses on the incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and on sustainability and climate change. Professor Wintle specialises in decision support for threatened species conservation, ecological modelling and monitoring, and measuring the cost-effectiveness of conservation programs.
Will and Brendan will describe how we must become stewards of the Earth System to secure our prosperity and conserve our natural and cultural heritage, based on transformed societies, with a greater level of equity and a focus on the maintenance of a well-functioning biosphere.

Streaming online via Facebook Live and the Victorian Parliament’s website.

This special series of online presentations explores the science and stories behind the game-changing work undertaken by Victoria’s scientific community. Our leading experts will talk about the work they’re doing to engage the community and affect meaningful change in their field of study and in our everyday lives. Presented by the Victorian Parliament, with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. A part of the Inspiring Victoria program.

Coastal Resilience: How Landforms Cope with Changing Waves and Rising Seas
2021-06-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Royal Society of Victoria, 8 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Vic, 3000, Australia
The 2021 Howitt Lecture
Presented in partnership with the Geological Society of Australia (Victoria Division).
Our coast is a dynamic system. As the protective boundary between the land and sea it absorbs the constant energy it receives from waves and tides and in doing so creates the landforms on which people recreate and build. The forms we see on the coast today are the result of each interaction waves have with the seabed, averaged over timescales of centuries to millennia.
To predict how the coast will look in a future dominated by climate change it is critical to understand the unique local conditions that have combined to give us the forms we see today. This talk will explore how some of Victoria’s iconic coasts have developed, from 90-mile Beach to Western Port and the 12 Apostles, and what their future may hold. There are no easy solutions, however by acknowledging the natural processes and especially sediment dynamics that shape the coast, we can plan a way forward.
About the Speaker:
Associate Professor David Kennedy is a coastal geomorphologist who specialises on the impacts of climate change, storms, tsunami and sea level rise on coastal landforms, particularly coral reefs and islands, rocky shorelines (cliffs and shore platforms) and estuaries. Surveying using total stations and remote sensing (eg. LiDAR) technologies are central to his research, which is combined with sedimentological and geochronological methodologies as well as real time measurement of wave and tidal processes.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
David’s research is based in the Pacific Islands and Australasia as well as in the Caribbean. He currently holds several elected positions chairing research working groups for the International Association of Geomorphologists and the International Quaternary Association. He co-leads the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Project, a multi-agency group commissioning citizen scientists to produce 3D models that precisely measure shoreline change, which was the recipient of the 2020 Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science. He is the Director of the University of Melbourne’s Office for Environmental Programs.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite: scroll down in the ticket window to see all ticket types, as you can also purchase an “add on” ticket to attend the lecture in person. Should COVID restrictions prevent us from proceeding, we will cheerfully refund your ticket and provide you with a link to join us via webinar instead. Alternatively, you can simply watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Decarbonising Energy: At the Tipping Point
2021-07-08 18:30 - 20:00 | Online, Australia
Australia installed more renewable generation in the last three years than in the thirty years prior. It seems that every week a new renewable energy record is smashed. Yet despite this, Australia has the highest per-capita greenhouse emissions of any advanced economy, we’re on track to miss our Paris Agreement commitments and we’re nowhere near achieving net zero.
How did we get here, and how can we turn it around?
About the Speaker
Simon Holmes à Court is one of Australia’s leading energy commentators and analysts. Based at the University of Melbourne, he is a senior adviser to the Climate and Energy College at the Energy Transition Hub and has developed the openNEM, an Open Platform for National Electricity Market Data.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
He has been a pioneering force in the Australian community power movement, both as the founding chair of Hepburn Wind, the country’s first community-owned wind farm, and founder of Embark Australia, a non-profit coalition helping communities share in the benefits of local renewable energy.
A joint presentation with the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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STEM and Society: A Hard-Won Theory - Tectonic Plates in Victoria
2021-07-14 18:00 - 19:00 | Online, Australia
Dr William Birch AM
A/Professor Sandra McLaren
In a ‘post-truth’ society, fuelled by soundbites and status updates, opinions and personal theories are often presented with unwavering certainty but remain untested.
In this climate, it can be confusing when we hear from scientists reluctant to deal in absolutes, who instead engage in conversations about ‘degrees of certainty’. In the world of science, a ‘theory’ is the closest something may ever come to being ‘the truth’.
To understand what modern scientists can go through to arrive at an accepted theory, we’re taking a look at one of the major revelations of the past century: the theory of tectonic plates.
This theory describes how the enormous fragments of our planet’s shell move against, over and under one another at their boundaries to slowly change the shape and location of our continents and oceans.
Professor Andy Gleadow
Professor Peter Betts
In this special online discussion, you’ll meet four eminent Victorian geologists who, not so long ago, started out as university students to find themselves amid a global battle of contesting ideas. Hear about their experience as a fiercely held status-quo gave way to a hard-won new theory within the international scientific community.
Mr Jerome Holleman
Our panel of experts will be joined by teacher Jerome Holleman and his students from Northcote High School, who have been taking part in the Big History learning program that aims to connect knowledge across disciplines and challenge students to embrace science, think critically, solve problems and drive innovation.

Streaming online via Facebook Live and the Victorian Parliament’s website.

This special series of online presentations explores the science and stories behind the game-changing work undertaken by Victoria’s scientific community. Our leading experts will talk about the work they’re doing to engage the community and affect meaningful change in their field of study and in our everyday lives. Presented by the Victorian Parliament, with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. A part of the Inspiring Victoria program.

Indigenous Food and Agriculture
2021-08-13 18:30 - 19:45 | Online, Australia
Join us for a special webinar on Indigenous agriculture, where we’ll yarn about native foods and Indigenous farmers — everything from practising agriculture as a traditional custodian, growing bush foods and making sure they’re safe to eat, preparing amazing meals and getting Australian native foods to market!
About the Speakers
Uncle Dave Wandin is a member of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Aboriginal Corporation and chairperson on the board for the Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Wurundjeri people, the Aboriginal owners of the historical property “Coranderrk” in the Yarra Valley. Coranderrk was set up as an Aboriginal Reserve in 1863 and was led by William Barak (who Wandin is a descendant of). The community had to fight hard to keep their land and community thriving, but in 1924 the property was forced to close, and in 1999, the Indigenous Land Corporation purchased 80 hectares of the property and gave ownership to the Wandoon Estate (Barak’s descendants). Coranderrk now operates as a farm for native bush foods and is set to open up as a training space and commercial kitchen.
Luke Williams is a proud Gumbaynggirr descendent who grew up in rural NSW. Luke is currently completing his PhD in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University. In collaboration with the national food regulatory body, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), and working alongside Aboriginal businesses and organisations, his research provides insight into how newly formed regulatory frameworks for assessing the dietary safety of traditional food items can better consider the unique history, knowledge and culture held by First Nations people.
Kerrie Saunders is a Kamillaroi/Gomeroi woman from the northwest of NSW. What started out as a hobby for gardening and bush walks has turned into a passion for highlighting bush tucker in the local and surrounding areas of Moree. Kerrie now conducts regular bush tucker tours through her business, Yinarr-ma, where she identifies bush tucker and cooks yummy meals for guests.
Kerrie also works with the University of Sydney on the Indigenous Grasslands for Grain project in Narrabri, making flour and bread with native grains.
@gilbertjoshuam
Joshua Gilbert is a Worimi man, farmer and academic, who shares the narration of Indigenous identity through agricultural truths in light of modern contexts.
He is undertaking higher degree research at Charles Sturt University, is the Indigenous Co-Chair of Reconciliation NSW and was recently recognised within the world’s top 50 young gastronomers.

@karlie_moon_
A joint presentation by the ACT National Science Week Coordinating Committee and the Royal Society of Victoria.
Our MC: Gamilaraay astrophysicist Karlie Noon is passionate about Indigenous astronomical knowledge and was the first Indigenous woman to obtain a double degree in science and mathematics. Karlie recently commenced a PhD in astronomy at the Australian National University and is Sydney Observatory’s first Astronomy Ambassador.

Registration is available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without needing to register.
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Climate Notes @ Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria
2021-08-14 14:00 - 15:10 | Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Climate Notes by Anna McMichael and Louise Devenish is a multimedia installation that invites us to explore and communicate how we feel about climate change through music, letter writing and video. The work builds on collections of handwritten letters by leading science researchers from all over the world, as well as archives from the State Botanical Collection of Victoria.
This emotive exhibition features five new musical works by Australian composers exploring the emotional impacts of climate change and propels us to consider what it feels like to live through a time when climate change affects every aspect of our lives.
Visit the interactive video installation during National Science Week, contribute your own letter about climate change, or attend a live performance of the new compositions featuring highly acclaimed violinist Anna McMichael and contemporary percussionist Louise Devenish.
Installation:
Sat 14 – Sun 22 Aug
10am – 4pm
Free
Performances:
Sat 14 and Sun 15 Aug
2pm (approx. 70mins)
$10 per person

Eco-Dyeing 101 Workshop
2021-08-15 10:00 - 14:00 | Alphington Community Centre, 2 Kelvin Road, Alphington, Victoria, 3078, Australia
Join the Alphington Community Centre in Science Week for a fabulous family workshop and learn how to use the plants in our neighbourhood to dye materials.
Local textile artist Rose Kulak will be teaching this workshop in our garden and out in The Shed. She’ll explain all the technical things, and then you’ll have a chance to have a go with a variety of plants and mediums. We’ll also share lunch and take a walk around the neighbourhood and into Darebin Parklands to explore plants that are suitable for dyeing.
You’ll take home your own hand dyed scarf (sure to make a lovely gift for yourself or someone you love), cotton samples and lots of new knowledge and skills.

Climate Change: Families for a Thriving Future @ Melbourne Museum
2021-08-15 16:00 - 17:00
Museums Victoria invites families to build their understanding of climate science as they work together to create a climate pledge for their family.

We are hearing more and more how climate change is affecting our Earth. But what does this really mean for humans and our natural environments, and is there anything we can do about it?
As part of National Science Week, Climate Change: Families for a thriving future provides an exciting opportunity for families to deepen their understanding of climate science and our changing world, as they discuss climate action and work together as a family to create a climate pledge.
The webinar will begin by unpacking the science behind why our climate is changing. Participants will engage with information from the latest reports as they learn about how climate change is specifically affecting us here in Victoria.
The second part of the program will invite families to work together to create a pledge of actions to help us all have a thriving future.

Suitable for families (recommended for children 8 and older)

Play, Sow, Make
2021-08-21 12:00 - 15:00 | Greenhills Neighbourhood House, Community Drive, Greensborough, Victoria, 3088, Australia
A Family Fun Day at Greenhills Neighbourhood House. Plant some seedlings, learn how to make pickles and play with our sustainable craft.

The Botanic Garden that Thought it Could Change the World
2021-08-21 13:00 - 14:00 | Online, Australia
Join acclaimed writer and climate activist Sophie Cunningham (author of Melbourne and City of Trees) in conversation with Clare Hart, Manager Horticulture, and Peter Symes, Curator Horticulture, about the Gardens’ Landscape Succession Strategy and the international Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens. Collaboration between botanic gardens across the globe is essential in understanding how plants will grow and survive in a warming climate. Clare and Peter will discuss how the Climate Change Alliance was formed right here in Melbourne, and how botanic gardens can harness their expertise to share and exchange skills and information on a global platform.
This event will be livestreamed – details to come.
Presented by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria as part of Inspiring Victoria’s ACCLIMATISE program for National Science Week, 14 – 22 August 2021.
This program has a COVIDSafe plan however it may be subject to changes in accordance with government restrictions.

The Future of Fungi
2021-08-21 15:00 - 16:00 | Online, Australia
Join Tom May, Principal Research Scientist (Mycology) in a discussion with writer and climate activist Sophie Cunningham (author of Melbourne and City of Trees) about the future of fungi. Fungi are megadiverse, estimated at several million species globally. Discover the role of fungi in ecosystems and how they will fare in future climates; and learn how fungi experts tackle the challenge of documenting the numerous “dark fungi”.
This event will be livestreamed – details to come.
Presented by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria as part of Inspiring Victoria’s ACCLIMATISE program for National Science Week, 14 – 22 August 2021.
This program has a COVIDSafe plan however it may be subject to changes in accordance with government restrictions.
