The Anthropocene: Where on Earth are we Going?
2021-04-08 19:00 - 20:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | 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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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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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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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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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 - 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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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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Stupidity? Diversity, Inclusion and AI
2020-10-15 19:00 - 20:30 | 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.

Possible Impossibles Online Forum
2020-08-23 16:00 - 17:00
How can Science offer us a path of hope for our post COVID lives and world? What tools can Science give us to help society recover, rebuild, and thrive in the future?
The Victorian Parliament will partner with the Royal Society of Victoria to host a live online community forum exploring how science can help create the sort of future Victorians want.
To be held on Sunday 23 August 2020 as part of National Science Week, the Possible Impossibles online forum will be hosted by award-winning ABC journalist Natasha Mitchell.
The forum will be streamed live from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm on the Facebook pages of the Victorian Parliament and the Royal Society of Victoria. Tune in to join in!
People who wish to participate in the discussion can register their questions in advance by emailing them to community@parliament.vic.gov.au.
Four scientists working at the forefront of environmental science, new technologies, medical science and space exploration will answer questions from an online audience and reflect on the way science can respond to community demands to improve people’s lives.
Scientists featured at the Possible Impossibles forum include:

Professor Elizabeth Croft is the Dean of Engineering at Monash University. Her research in industrial robotics and human-robot interaction advances the design of intelligent controllers and interaction methods that support human-robot collaboration. She has won national and international awards for her scholarship, advocacy for women in engineering, and educational contributions. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Engineers Australia, Engineers Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Dr Kudzai Kanhutu is an infectious diseases physician and deputy chief medical information officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). She is a past Superstar of STEM and recipient of the Victorian Department of Health excellence in culturally and linguistically diverse care award. Her current work portfolio includes patient care, research and project management with a particular focus on the role that digital technologies can play in addressing health inequity.

Associate Professor Julie Mondon is the Director for Environmental Science Marine Biology degree at Deakin University. Her research emphasis is in marine and coastal ecology and environmental impact, with special interest in aquatic ecotoxicology, investigating the toxicological impact of contaminants on marine and estuarine organisms living in these exposed environments. This expertise has led to working in catchment, industrial and urban waste contaminant impacts across tropical, temperate and Antarctic ecosystems: pollution exposure and response in aquatic organisms at multiple levels including crustaceans, molluscs, fish and sharks to develop biomarker response tools to identify risks and harm at the organism, community and ecological levels.

Dr Gail Iles is a Senior Lecturer in Space Physics at RMIT University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Space Industry Association of Australia. Dr Iles has 15 years’ experience of working at nuclear facilities and synchrotrons around the world to explore the properties of materials such as structure, magnetism and superconductivity – particularly from samples grown in Zero-G. Dr Iles was an astronaut instructor at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany and holds a medal for extensive time spent experimenting in zero gravity. In 2011, she was presented the WISE Champion Award by HRH Princess Anne, for inspiring children, particularly girls, to study STEM subjects. Dr Iles conducts extensive outreach in schools and locations around Victoria and is the science correspondent on the Neil Mitchell radio show on 3AW.

Forum MC:

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award winning ABC science journalist, presenter, producer and podcaster. She hosts the weekly science and culture show on ABC Radio National, Science Friction, awarded best science & medicine podcast at the 2019 Australian Podcast Awards. She was founding presenter of one of the ABC’s most popular radio programs, All in the Mind, for a decade, and host of the flagship daily program, Life Matters from 2012-2016. Natasha was vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and a recipient of the MIT Knight Fellowship. She has an engineering degree from Monash University and postgraduate diploma in science communication from the ANU. She regularly comperes at events and festivals around Australia, including four dialogues with the Dalai Lama and scientists.

Brewing Futures
2020-08-21 19:30 - 20:30
Join us from the comfort of your living room as Jon Seltin, Head Brewer from Brick Lane Brewing Co., winds the clock forward on beer brewing. How will climate change and advances in sensory science affect beer production? How might our beer tastes change in the future?
On this behind the scenes brewery tour, bring your curiosity and engage your palate to discover emerging brewing technologies and trends while sampling some great brews and important brewing raw ingredients. But be on the lookout, not everything you taste will be as it seems!
This is an online event only. Ticket holders have been forwarded a Brewing Futures tasting kit prior to the event for consumption during the event – follow along at the Royal Society of Victoria’s live stream page at https://www.facebook.com/royalsocietyvictoria/live/ .
A part of the Possible Impossibles series for the 2020 National Science Week program.
About our Host:
Jon Setin is Head Brewer at Brick Lane Brewing, an independent brewery in Melbourne producing beers and ciders.
Passionate about the science involved with making great beer, Jon runs engaging workshops about this topic. He has even presented beer workshops at Parliament House Melbourne for public audiences! Prior to Brick Lane, Jon was Head Brewer at Hawkers Beer and Bright Brewery.
Jon is also Chair of BIRA (Brewing Interlaboratory Reference Analytes), an industry led proficiency testing scheme for organisations performing beer analysis.

Our Resilient Future - Water, Agriculture & Biodiversity
2020-08-20 19:00 - 20:30
Enormous changes and transitions are already upon us, and we find ourselves unprepared. This summer’s devastating bushfires and the unprecedented disruption to industries and the business of government here in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic have given us a disquieting insight to the sustained uncertainty we’ll be facing under a rapidly changing climate in the decades to come. Under these new conditions, referring to what happened in the past will be unhelpful in predicting the future. One thing is clear: policy, operational, regulatory, investment, management and other decisions will be made under increasingly ambiguous conditions, and integration will be needed across all sectors and levels of our society to set us on a preferred climate path and prepare us for the outcomes we can no longer avoid.
The scale of environmental, economic and cultural transformation required is immense; a seriously intimidating scope of change for planners and policy makers to even approach, let alone implement. Yet short-term, incremental changes can only help us to “cope” (until we can’t), rather than flourish. How do we enable our communities and industries to transform? How do we build agency for regional communities to drive a self-determining transformation over these long time-scales when the state-based decision-making and economic reality is itself so changeable?
It seems impossible, but there are success stories we can learn and build from. We propose that we can’t plan for an uncertain future if we’re not prepared to take a systems perspective and focus on resilience. Join us for a series of six-minute presentations across the disciplines that consider the formation of localised resilience strategies for regional Victoria, drawing on the experience and unique challenges of the Goulburn Murray region as a case study. We will look at the challenges and changes ahead for the agricultural sector, the persistence and survival of our biodiversity, and the interactions of these in a near future projected to feature less water from annual rainfall across our state, with related drying conditions, heat waves, extended fire seasons and the increasing likelihood of a rolling, resource intensive emergency management campaign that will reduce our society’s capacity to be proactive.
Presentations:
A Place-Based Approach: The Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy
David McKenzie, Chair, Goulburn Regional Partnership
Claire Flanagan-Smith, Principal, Community & Strategy, RM Consulting Group
Climate Change & Systems Transformation
Associate Professor Lauren Rickards, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Preparing for Biodiversity Decision Making
Professor Brendan Wintle, School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne

Agricultural Transitions
Professor Richard Eckard, Director of Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, The University of Melbourne
Preparing for the Transition of the Water Sector
Dr Briony Rogers, Director of MSDI Water, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

Building Community Agency
Professor Sarah Bekessy, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
We will be joined by some of our speakers during the meeting to further discuss their work and potential for application in service of transformational initiatives in the State of Victoria.
A part of the Possible Impossibles program for National Science Week.
In light of COVID-19 restrictions, this meeting will be conducted online as a Zoom webinar, with presentations pre-filmed and speakers answering questions from RSV members and guests in the webinar (invitations to register are sent via email and also listed on the Society’s membership page). The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to follow the proceedings and add your questions and comments.

Fake Out: citizen science challenge
2020-08-14 17:00 - 2020-09-10 17:00
Do you believe what you see? Did Obama really say that (he probably did but not on video)? What are Spiderman and Iron Man doing in Back to the Future? Deep fakes, like YouTuber EZRyderX47’s Back to the Future deepfake video (image featured here), are getting better and better and humans remain the best judges of the truth despite the efforts of AI. Can you tell real from fake? And if you could, would you share it? Take the ‘Fake Out’ challenge and find out.
Fake Out has been created by Dr Simon Cropper, Dr Gergely Nyalasy, Sarah Lorenz and Jennifer Nguyen from the University of Melbourne and citizen scientist responses will help inform their research into deep fakes.
More information and to take the ‘Fake Out’ Challenge

Frogs and Dogs - Glenroy Library
2020-02-29 10:00 | Glenroy Library, 737 Pascoe Vale Road, Glenroy, Victoria, 3046, Australia
Join Merri Creek Management Committee’s Waterwatch Coordinator and Dr Natalie Catalynd, frog researcher from Canine Ecological, to learn about local frogs, and meet a dog that helps researchers “sniff” out frogs.
You will learn how to identify frog species, fun froggy facts, and why frogs are an important part of our ecosystem.
You can also can help increase our knowledge of frogs via the fun, free and easy frog census app.
This is a free event for beginners, with older children welcome. Bookings essential.
This event is proudly supported by the City of Moreland, The Royal Society of Victoria and Inspiring Australia (Victoria).

Walrus of Peace
2019-09-19 09:00 - 2019-10-10 21:00 | Dudley House, 60 View Street, Bendigo, VIC, Australia
Is ochre the new spray paint?
Walrus of Peace investigates a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, recyclable, alternative set of materials for temporary street art installations.
Bendigo Artists Inc (Australia)
Street art is a popular form of creative expression, but it has lots of environmental and ethical issues. The paints and acetate used are pretty harsh on the artists and the environment.
The Walrus of Peace project, by a collective of Bendigo artists, investigates a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, recyclable, alternative set of materials for temporary street art installations. The materials include ceramic slip (aka mud), ochres, natural pigments and natural binders (wax, resins and oils).
The technique dates back 35 000 years and has been used to create rock paintings across the country. Walrus of Peace shows how we can incorporate ancient knowledge into contemporary practice to help move towards a more sustainable future.
Outdoor installation, accessible everyday at all times.

Space for girl guides and scouts
2019-09-13 20:00 - 21:30 | Briars Astronomy Centre and Observatory, 450 Nepean Highway, Mount Martha, VIC, 3934, Australia
The evening aims to build awareness of the Australian night sky and help troops of Girl Guides and Scouts of any age in the journey towards their Outer Space/Astronomy badge/achievement award.

If you belong to an adventurous troop of Girl Guides or Scouts of any age who are seeking to navigate their way amongst the stars and who are working towards their Outer Space or Astronomy badge/award, then this focused evening of stargazing, navigating the night sky and big question answering is for your group.
You or your Group Leaders can book with the Mornington Peninsula Astronomical Society at their registered observatory on the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne.
There you will be walked through the key requirements of the achievement award, followed by practice outside under the night sky with telescopes and binoculars.
Please note that only current Girl Guides, Scouts or Cubs or their Leaders or Parent/Guardian can book. Booking by other members of the public, are not possible.
The observatory is marked on Google Maps and on the Melways at map reference 151/E1.

1 2 3 STEM for Little Kids and Big Kids!
2019-09-07 13:00 - 15:00 | Monash Civic Centre, 293 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia
Inspire and get a head-start in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) open toy play and help your child develop these skills at home, preschool and school.

Hear from local child educators on approaches to introduce STEM open play for pre-school to Grade 3.
​Members and non-members welcome.
Guest speakers are from:

Monash Public Library Youth Services
Monash University Faculty of Education student and Toy Library volunteer
Robogals Monash.

Funds raised will contribute to Monash Toy Libraries volunteer uniform.
The event will also showcase Monash Toy Libraries range of toys designed to improve your child’s academic, cognitive and motor skills, with STEM toys available for hire after the event. They are educational and fun too.
Disclaimer: toys may be highly addictive.
Free admission for little kids with their guardians.
Two Adults $10 + Booking Fee
One Adult $8 + Booking Fee
To Register, go to https://www.monashtoylibraries.com.au/events

Are you taking the piss?
2019-08-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Forum Theatre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
Join a brilliant panel who won’t shy away from the yuck-factor to find innovative solutions to our over consumption of… everything.
Would you break the law to save the world? We’re living in a world of finite resources, yet there are laws in place preventing us from using these resources wisely. Join us as we lift the lid on barriers preventing our transformation towards real sustainability. Innovation moves so fast that rules and regulations can’t possibly keep up, often leaving scientists/engineers/businesses on the wrong side of the law.
In Australia, we throw away over one million tonnes of water per day. Just wow. And don’t even get us started on the other things we flush down the drain that could be used for the power of good. Hint: we are literally flushing a powerful wee-source! We need to be inventive, creative and brave with what we have and how we use it.
Who has a say in shaping our streets and cities? When is waste valuable again? Is a sharing economy the answer to all our problems?

Preschoolers Little Scientist Club
2019-08-27 10:00 - 2019-09-17 11:00
Preschoolers Little Scientist Club at Deer Park Library
For four weeks children can explore the world of science with fun, hands-on experiments and science equipment that they can take home. Budding Einsteins will spend an hour each week having fun with science and will finish in week four with a grand science expo. Booking required.
Deer Park Library at 10-11am
on Tuesdays the 27 August and 3, 10, 17 September

Create, Play Learn at Home STEM Kits
2019-08-27 10:00 - 17:00 | 8 Waltham Street, Sandringham 3191
Check out the Bayside Library’s amazing STEM kits as part of a new program: Create, Play, Learn at Home! There’s a large assortment to choose from: Makey Makey, Edison Robots, Ozo bot, Micro bit, and much, much more!
What are these STEM kits? Here’s a description of one called Makey Makey:
The Makey Makey Classic by JoyLabz is an invention kit that tricks your computer into thinking that almost anything is a keyboard! This allows you to hook up all kinds of fun things as an input. For example, play Mario with a Play-Doh keyboard or piano with fruit!

Eel Trap - Outdoor Installation
2019-08-23 09:00 - 2019-08-31 17:00 | Maribyrnong River, 45 Moreland Street, Footscray, VIC, Australia
“Rivers signify tribal boundaries, gatherings for corroboree, life, not only for humans but for all living creatures” – Maree Clarke.
Created by Boon Wurrung artist Mitch Mahoney and Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta and Boon Wurrung/Wemba Wemba artist Maree Clarke, Eel Trap is a 10-metre installation made of biodegradable reeds and grasses on the Maribyrnong River.
Inspired by traditional Aboriginal eel traps and made of river reeds from the local area, this installation is an example of how we might we use Indigenous knowledge, science and art to continue our fight towards a sustainable future. The installation will be created by Mahoney and Clarke and the local community, and will then be released into the Maribyrnong River. Members of the general public are invited to join the artists in free weaving workshops to build Eel Trap.
31 July – 21 August
Community weaving workshops: open Wednesday to Friday 11am–3pm, and Saturday 1pm–3pm.
23 – 31 August
Eel Trap viewing in Maribyrnong River: Outdoor installation, accessible everyday at all times.

Pollution Pods
2019-08-22 19:00 - 2019-09-01 19:00 | Treasury Gardens, 2-18 Spring Street, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Michael Pinsky’s interactive and eye-opening artwork, enables audiences to experience differing air qualities amongst the world’s least and most polluted cities.
How clean is our air?
Experience some of the most polluted cities in the world from the safety of these glorious and sustainably made pods.
Your journey starts in a pod recreating the pristine environment of Tautra, a remote Norwegian island. Enjoy breathing in that clean-smelling air, and steel yourself to continue through to the pods with some of the lowest air quality in the world: London, New Delhi, Beijing and São Paulo.
Each pod safely *simulates* the polluted environments of these cities rather than exposing you to the serious levels of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide that their occupants breathe in every day.
Are you ready to take a whiff of the smog of London or Beijing? And how does Melbourne compare?Visit the EPA (Environment Protection Authority) AirWatch to find out more.
Presented in partnership with White Night Melbourne and the EPA.
Treasury Gardens
22 August – 1 September

22–23 August open 7pm–midnight, as part of White Night Melbourne Reimagined
24 August open 7pm–2am, as part of White Night Melbourne Reimagined
25 August – CLOSED
26 August–28 August open 11am–6pm
29–30 August open 11am–8pm
1 September open 11am–6pm

Michael Pinsky will also give the Hugh Williamson Lecture

Science involved in culture - TOOTHPASTETREES
2019-08-22 18:30 - 20:30 | Broadmeadows Global Learning Centre, 1079 Pascoe Vale Road, Broadmeadows, 3047, Australia
A laboratory style experimental setup of a steam distillation unit showcasing the live process of eucalyptus oil extraction. The audience can engage through their senses of sight, smell and touch and get actively involved in the discussion.
This unique science show exhibits the enthusiasm and creativity of an environmental scientist who is passionate about sustainability from a unique cultural perspective. It shares the story of the journey to Australia and culture as well as the science behind a very common practice that we all do to look after ourselves: teeth cleaning.
Miswak, a natural form of toothbrush used in Middle Eastern countries, is made from the tender roots and stems of a variety of trees including neem and eucalyptus and is reputed for its antibacterial and medicinal properties. This ancient cultural practice uses twig brush (Miswak) to brush teeth, as an alternative to toothbrushes and paste. Interspaced with photographs of beautiful trees and significant buildings from the home country of India, I will demonstrate the scientific process of extracting oil from eucalyptus leaves, which are used in Australia for Miswak. There are over 180 other trees which can be used for this purpose.
The Miswak is a fascinating cultural and scientific subject as it combines a cultural practice with scientific knowledge. Miswak has more than 70 benefits to our health more than half of which are proven scientifically through research: strengthens memory, improves eyesight, assists digestion, cures headaches, strengthens gums, prevents tooth decay and eliminates bad odour. Miswak has a long and well documented history dating back some 3500 years ago. Apart from Islam, the use of Miswak in other cultures is also well known. The Babylonians and the Romans quite extensively used it.

Maths & Music: Maybe I could be a mathematician
2019-08-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Discovery Science & Technology Centre, 7 Railway Place, Bendigo, Victoria, 3550, Australia
Maybe I Could Be A Mathematician – A story of growing up alongside vinyl, CD, MP3, and YouTube Premium
Presented by Professor Arun Ram
Professor Ram is an internationally recognised mathematician and an inspirational teacher. In this unique presentation he tells a series of stories, interweaving mathematics and music. Humorous, educational, personal, often all at once, these collected stories illuminate the remarkable journey of an enquiring mind who became a mathematician. A mathematical mixtape from a lifelong road trip.
*Suitable for all ages, and all levels of interests and abilities in maths and music.

Sci Fight Science Comedy Debate
2019-08-21 19:00 - 22:00 | Howler, 7-11 Dawson Street, Brunswick, VIC, Australia
Humans are worth saving…?
Sci Fight Science Comedy Debate is partnering with Science Gallery Melbourne to ask the question, are we a disposable species? The 20th century has seen humanity’s focused dedication on the creation of inbuilt obsolescence, of single use everything, why should it not apply to the whole human race as well? We turned liquid dinosaur juice into fuel for our cars, we took perfectly happy and inert carbon and flung it into the atmosphere, and we built an entire economy on moving bits of plastic from one place to another, and then back again in the name of recycling. Which then mostly went into landfill. Well, the land is very full now and we’ve not yet got around to locating a Planet B. No one has put their hand up and said that they’re willing to forego pasta and start eating plastic. When oil is down to its last drop, should humanity just go with it? To be outlived by the coffee cups and disposable nappies we brought into existence.
Or is that the attitude of quitters? This new wave of ecological chaos isn’t humanity’s first run in with adversity. Remember the bubonic plague? Well that wasn’t the barrel of laughs we hoped for. But we got through it. Remember Nuclear Winter? We seemed to have more or less postponed that. Then there was the K2 bug. If anything, we’re getting better at this crisis business. Plus, this time round we’ve got all these coffee cups and nappies to use for something or other. As the most intelligent, creative, and adaptable species Earth has yet seen, is the solution to our ever increasing waste problem just around the corner? It’d be a shame to quit before we got there. Humans might just be worth saving.
Come grab a bite and a beverage at Howler and find out if we’re a single use species. Maybe decline a straw while you’re at it.

Design a logo with Inkscape
2019-08-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Bargoonga Nganjin North Fitzroy Library, 182/186 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, VIC, 3068, Australia
Learn how to use Inkscape, a free, powerful, open-source alternative to Adobe Illustrator to create your logo and find your personal brand. Our session will cover the basics of vector graphics and you will leave with the skills to make your own simple letter logo. Bookings essential.
