Electronic Skin: Sensing the World Around and Within Us
2021-11-11 19:30 - 21:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Stretchable and wearable electronics represent a new wave in devices which can bend, flex, and stretch with the human body. Researchers from Melbourne’s RMIT University have developed a prototype to mimic real human skin, with the aim to create a viable alternative to invasive skin grafts and conventional prosthetics.
Join Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, who leads the team working to transform conventional, hard electronics into soft, unbreakable products, thin enough to create “electronic skin.” These ground-breaking, electronic, prosthetic patches can adhere to the skin to mimic, measure and diagnose body functionality, and monitor the environment around, on, and within us. Their potential extends beyond improving the lives of people with prosthetic limbs and skin grafts to offer new tools for surgeons, astronauts and other professions requiring a precise “feel” without direct contact.
About the Speaker
Professor Madhu Bhaskaran is a multi-award winning electronics engineer and innovator. She was the 2014 recipient of the RSV’s Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award, and has since been recognised for her outstanding achievements with a slew of awards, including the 2018 Batterham Medal from the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the 2020 Frederick White Medal from the Australian Academy of Science.
Professor Bhaskaran co-leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT University, which she established at the outset of an ARC postdoctoral fellowship in 2010, and acts as Node Director and Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems. Her work on electronic skin and wearable sensors has been patented, and her group now works collaboratively with multiple industry and design partners to commercialise the technology for healthcare and aged care.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
Madhu attained her Bachelor of Engineering at the PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, India, before completing first her Master of Engineering then Doctor of Philosophy at RMIT University, Melbourne.
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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Improving Drug Discovery: A Molecular Understanding of Cell Surface Receptors
2021-11-25 18:30 - 20:00
The human animal is multicellular – an organism comprised of trillions of smaller organisms. As with any complex organisation, each individual cell in our body must communicate with and respond effectively to the collective to keep our systems working. Our cells send and receive signals through the use of special proteins on their surfaces – receptors – that interact with the “extracellular matrix,” a network of specialised molecules that perform structural, biochemical and signalling functions between our bodies’ cells and systems.
The largest family of these cell-surface receptor proteins are called G Protein-Coupled Receptors, or GPCRs. GPCRs respond to extracellular stimuli such as hormones, neurotransmitters, peptides, metabolites and odours, while controlling a variety of physiological functions. Importantly, they have been found to have an excellent response as drug targets and are thus very useful in developing effective medicines to combat serious disease. Currently, GPCR targets are implicated in around 25% of all medicines approved by the USA’s Food and Drug Administration.
However, many hurdles remain to improving GPCR drug discovery, requiring an expanded, interdisciplinary approach to open the door to new therapies. Join Dr Christopher Draper-Joyce to explore new, proof-of-concept approaches that promise the development of safer and much improved options for GPCR therapeutics.
About the Speaker

Dr Christopher Draper-Joyce is an ARC DECRA Fellow with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and a Lecturer on Drug Discovery with the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, where he earlier completed his PhD on the biomolecular actions of the dopamine D2 receptor using pharmacological assays, molecular biology and biochemistry techniques.
Christopher’s postdoctoral work has extended his analytical and molecular pharmacology skillset into the field of structural biology, with a particular focus on solving and stabilising the GPCR-G protein complexes, to shed new light on molecular mechanisms of drug-receptor action. He has contributed to the pandemic effort with colleagues at the Florey, bringing the Institute’s collective skillset in protein engineering to bear on SARS-CoV-2, developing novel lead proteins that can bind to the S glycoprotein (Spike) of the virus, and may be useful as antiviral agents.
Dr Draper-Joyce’s efforts have been recognised with an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award and the Asia-Pacific Protein Association Young Scientist Award in 2020 and, in 2021, he is the recipient of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award in Category II: Biomedical and Health Sciences.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
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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Bioremediation: Restoring Contaminated Ecosystems, Naturally
2021-12-09 18:30 - 20:00
Nature-harnessing technologies are key to effectively and sustainably restoring contaminated ecosystems, using naturally occurring microorganisms to clean up contamination from oil and other organic pollutants in soils, groundwater and water bodies. The bioremediation process both destroys contaminants and restores an ecosystem’s microbiome.
But every local ecosystem is unique when it comes to microbiological communities, so new and innovative approaches are required for each contaminated site.
Understanding the factors that determine the stability and resilience of contaminated ecosystems, and the critical role of that system’s natural microbial community, remains one of the frontiers of environmental science. Join Professor Andy Ball to explore how environmental microbiology can be scaled up for impactful and commercially successful applications to contaminated sites all over our highly industrialised world.
About the Speaker
Professor Andrew Ball is the Director of the ARC Training Centre for the Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids Resource at RMIT University. With deep expertise in environmental microbiology and biotechnology, Professor Ball was, until recently, the Director of the Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Remediation (EnSuRe) at RMIT.
Andy has headed the Environmental Biotechnology Group, now based at RMIT University (previously based at Essex University and Flinders University), since 1995. He has brought a wealth of research and teaching expertise to Victoria at an international level, particularly in the fields of bioremediation, organic waste treatment, and the environmental fate of organic pollutants. His contributions to his field and to the research community in Victoria were recognised this year with the award of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research in Category I: Biological Sciences.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
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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Queers in Science: on Neurodiversity
2022-01-27 18:30 - 20:00
Join Queers in Science, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, and the Royal Society of Victoria for an online lecture on Neurodiversity. This lecture is presented as part of the Midsumma Festival and Inspiring Victoria.

We recognise that the brain of every individual is unique, meaning not everyone learns or thinks the same way. To reduce the stigma around neurodivergence and mental illness, we will explore not only the science behind it, featuring queer neuroscientists with expertise, but also have a panel discussion with neurodivergent individuals sharing their day-to-day experience.

Speakers
Dr Emma Burrows
Dr Emma Burrows leads a laboratory of enthusiastic people at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Her team train mice to play games on touch-screens to learn about how genetic mutations linked to autism can change a mouse’s ability to learn and pay attention. Emma hopes a greater understanding of brain differences will help to mitigate challenges faced by some people on the autism spectrum.

Kate Huckstep
Kate Huckstep (they/them) is a queer PhD student at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, where they are currently researching Alcohol Use Disorder. They are fascinated by happens in the brain when people experience alcohol addiction and are passionate about finding new potential treatments for this debilitating yet highly stigmatised disease. Kate is also an avid science communicator, hosting both a regular science comedy podcast (Curiosity Killed the Rat), and a science radio show (Radio Sci-Lens) on the University of Melbourne’s student radio station.

Liam Leyden
Liam Leyden is currently completing his PhD at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. He is interested in investigating mechanisms of learning and memory by using cutting-edge microscopy techniques.

Panellists

Dr Sophia Frentz
Sophia has a PhD in Genetics and a large number of opinions on the intersections between science, technology, and society. Sophia is currently a Data Consultant at Eliiza and is based in Melbourne, Australia. They received one of Out for Australia’s 30 under 30 Awards in 2020 and are now a Non-Executive Director for this organisation.

Dr Daphne Cohen
Dr Daphne Cohen is an emergency physician-in-training, currently working in clinical forensic medicine. She is a published poet, bioethicist, aspiring novelist, and all-round overachiever.

Planetarium Nights
2022-08-05 19:30 - 22:00, 2022-08-12 19:30 - 22:00, 2022-08-19 19:30 - 22:00, 2022-08-26 19:30 - 22:00 | Scienceworks, 2 Booker Street, Spotswood, VIC, 3015, Australia
Join Scienceworks’ popular Planetarium Nights programs to explore rare and rarely seen events such as a total solar eclipse, supernovae, and gravitational waves. Astronomers have a strange relationship with the idea of ‘rare’; something we seldom see on Earth may be commonplace at a universal scale. Museums Victoria astronomer Dr Tanya Hill has carefully curated a special selection of rare (or maybe not-so-rare) astronomical events for the show Ticket to the Universe. Or go on a poetic journey into the rarely detected phenomena of gravitational waves with the full-dome feature show Particle/Wave.

Science on Show
2022-08-13 11:00 - 14:00, 2022-08-21 11:00 - 14:00 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
Museums Victoria has more than 17 million collection objects, and we’re bringing out some of our rarest and most fascinating samples and specimens at Melbourne Museum for Science on Show. This event will feature curators and scientists delivering pop-up talks on their research, rare artefacts, and the stories behind them, and one of the rarest dinosaur fossils in the world – the most complete Triceratops skeleton ever unearthed, on display for your palaeontological pleasure.

Snap, CT Scan, Model, Predict!
2022-08-17 18:00 - 19:15 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
Learn what new technology can reveal about rare reptiles and frogs!
For a deep dive into some fascinating science, come to our National Science Week edition of MV Lectures to hear about how cutting-edge technology is helping to detect and study rare species. Hear from the scientists on a bold new research project combining the fields of palaeontology, macro-ecology, computed tomography (CT scanning), taxonomy and genetics. They will illustrate how museum-based work with large, data-rich collections and new non-invasive techniques can reveal more than ever before and built an interactive, online space for collection access.

RARE @ Parliament of Victoria
2022-08-21 15:00 - 16:30
Champions of conservation and biodiversity will gather at Parliament House for this vital Science Week discussion about the extinction crisis facing thousands of Australia’s native species, and what we can do about it.
Our State’s remarkable botanical and zoological collections are carefully managed by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Zoos Victoria, while Museums Victoria maintains significant collections related to the natural history of our region and the wider world. These familiar institutions do more than offer an interesting place for Victorians to visit – they are also engines of research and field work, helping the State of Victoria to future-proof the unique plants and animals of our region against bushfires, floods, the ongoing impacts from our spreading towns and cities, our intensive farming practices, and our changing climate.
Our public science institutions all care for the rare – through the Seed Bank maintained at the National Herbarium, through activating the amazing network of community botanic gardens across metropolitan and regional Victoria, through the tissue and DNA samples cryogenically stored by Museums Victoria in a BioBank to safeguard the genetic diversity of threatened species, and through the captive breeding programs for species on the brink of extinction, diligently nurtured back to population health by biologists and ecologists at Zoos Victoria.
Join us for this RARE panel conversation, streamed live from Parliament House, to learn from the botanists, zoologists and collection managers leading this important work. Find out some of the ways they are planning to help our plants and animals adapt and persist through the multiple challenges in our immediate future.
Presented in partnership with the Royal Society of Victoria, the Parliament of Victoria, and the Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM for National Science Week 2022.
