Meet Our Speakers 2022
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This year, Soapbox Science Adelaide partnered with Science Alive! to host the inaugural Soapbox Science Adelaide event on August 5th, 2022 at the Adelaide Showground. Our amazing line-up of speakers presented on everything from bird parasites to designing new beverages for astronauts! In this video you will get to meet just a few of them.
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Dr Alyce Martin
ARC DECRA Fellow, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute Talk Title: 'It's a gut thing': Insights into how bacteria and gut hormones impact our health. I have studied and worked at Flinders University since 2008, having completed a Bachelor of Medical Science in 2011 followed by a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2012. I went on to complete my PhD at the end of 2018 in the lab of Prof. Damien Keating, studying how unique serotonin-producing cells in the gut detect and respond to their environment. Following my postdoctoral position in the Keating lab studying the role of serotonin in gut motility, I was awarded an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellowship for 2022, and I now lead the Gut Hormones in Health and Disease Laboratory within the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute. Our primary research focus is how different nutrients and bacteria within the gut contribute to hormone release from cells within the gut, and how this is integrated into crucial processes such as energy metabolism, gut function and gut-brain communication. |
Anja Zelmer
PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide Talk Title: The invisibility cloak lifted- how to fight invisible bacteria in the bone Anja Zelmer is a pharmacist and a third year PhD Candidate at the Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research at the University of Adelaide. Her research focuses on the understanding of mechanism that allows bacteria to persist in chronic infections of the bone as well as possible treatment options. A major challenge in osteomyelitis, the infection of the bone, is that 40% of chronic and recurrent infections cannot be cured. This is in part caused by bacteria persisting undetectable in the bone. I try to make this understand how the bacteria becomes invisible, how to make it invisible and how to kill it. |
Ishka Bless
PhD Researcher,University of Adelaide & University of Nottingham Talk title: How sensory science might help us make edible insects an everyday ingredient Ishka is a joint PhD Student at the University of Adelaide and University of Nottingham. Combining a professional background in social enterprise with undergraduate studies in Food Science and Nutrition (Hons) at the University of New South Wales, she is interested in human-centred approaches to sustainable food transitions. Using sensory and consumer science, Ishka's research explores the barriers to and facilitators of entomophagy (eating insects) among Western consumers. Practically, this work aims to inform pathways for increased uptake of edible insects as an alternative protein in Western food cultures. This talk will explore the function of our sensory system and its influence on our experience of food; in particular, edible insects. Participants will learn about the sensory properties of edible insects and be encouraged to identify how they might use them to enhance their everyday diet - putting edible insects back on the menu! |
Dr Lauren Jones
Postdoctoral Researcher, Flinders University Talk Title: A gut feeling: serotonin in the second brain Lauren is a cell biologist at Flinders University, having just completed her PhD which focused on the role of serotonin in gut motility and the gut-brain axis. Lauren is a specialist in confocal microscopy, having held a position during her PhD at the Flinders University Microscopy Facility. She has recently had her work published in the prestigious journal Gastroenterology. Lauren is currently undertaking her role has a Postdoctoral researcher at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, continuing her work on gut serotonin and the gut-brain axis. |
Lauren Common
PhD Candidate, Flinders University Talk Title: On vampires and birds: The invasive blood sucking fly eating Darwin's finches Lauren is a third year PhD candidate in the BirdLab at Flinders University. After completing her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in animal behaviour in 2018, she was fascinated by how different species interact with each other. Her project focuses on the new relationship between an invasive parasitic fly and its hosts, the iconic Darwin’s finches of the Galapagos Islands. These flies, known as the Avian Vampire Fly, drink the blood of baby birds as they grow in the nest, causing high death rates in vulnerable bird populations. Lauren is investigating the impact of this introduced parasite, selection on parasite populations and how host and parasites interact |
Natasha Nagle
Director and Research Scientist, ReadSTEM Talk Title: Science as Stories: Why scientists do what we do, and how our work helps us better inform our stories of the world around us Natasha Nagle is an Early Career Researcher and creator of ReadSTEM, a framework dedicated to communicating a variety of science in interesting and engaging ways while helping to provide other researchers and scientists with the tools, confidence, and understanding necessary to communicate their own work. She obtained her bachelors degrees in the Geosciences (BS), Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies (BA), and Anthropology (BA), as well as Interdisciplinary Honors in Geosciences and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, and minors in History, International Studies, and Jewish Studies from the Pennsylvania State University, and her Masters in Archaeological Science from Cambridge University. She has been recognized as Valedictorian, an EMSAGE Laureate, Robert E. Dengler Scholar, and AIA Matson Fellow two consecutive years, as well as winning Study Adelaide's 2020 International Student Award for Postgraduate Research. |
Rachel Amber Atkins
PhD student, University of Adelaide Talk Title: The reconstruction of ancient vegetation and ecosystems around Robertson Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia Rachel Atkins is a PhD student at The University of Adelaide. She completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Environmental Geoscience where she compared two soil carbon isotopic proxies. She has since then developed an interest in palaeobotany and has began investigating the palaeoenvironment in Naracoorte, South Australia. Her research focuses on reconstructing the palaeovegetation and palaeoecosystems around Robertson Cave, using plant macrofossils. |
Ashleigh Geiger
PhD candidate, The University of Adelaide Talk Title: The CRISPR revolution – how genome editing is changing our world Ashleigh completed her Bachelor of Science (Advanced) (Biochemistry and Genetics) at the University of Adelaide in 2019. She is now undertaking a PhD in the SAHMRI Gene Editing program, the University of Adelaide, developing CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic strategies for genetic eye disease. Ashleigh is interested in medical molecular genetics, especially the application of genome editing to disease therapeutics. She is excited about CRISPR optimisation, and aspires to contribute to the development of safer, more efficient technologies. Ashleigh is passionate about science communication and engagement. A proponent of Women in STEM, she is the inaugural secretary of the University of Adelaide's Women in STEM Alumni Network. In 2021, she served as Chair of the Australasian Neuroscience Society Student Body Committee. Her PhD focuses on the development of CRISPR therapeutics for genetic eye disease. Her talk will give an overview of genome editing, show how it can be used 'as medicine', share what is currently happening in the clinic, and discuss the many challenges and opportunities that CRISPR offers to humanity. |
Svenja Schmidt
PhD candidate, School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials & Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, University of Adelaide Talk Title: Designing new beverages for astronauts After developing an interest in chemistry and physics during high school, Svenja went on to study chemical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin in her home country Germany. During her Bachelor and Masters studies, she participated in several study visits in Poland, Italy, Iran, and Jordan. S In 2020, Svenja started a joint PhD programme between the University of Adelaide and the University of Nottingham. For her project, Svenja develops a new generation of fortified beverages for astronauts that are customizable in flavour and nutrient content to improve health and well-being during space missions. At Soapbox, she will present her work on new beverages for space exploration to enable the Mars mission, specifically about colloid science (beverage emulsions), process engineering (designing the production process), and impact of microgravity on flavour, health, and liquids & its processing. |
Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa
Group Leader, The University of Adelaide Talk Title: Why can't we get rid of pesky weeds? Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa is an early career plant biochemist and Group Leader at the Waite Research Institute, The University of Adelaide. She has been awarded funding through the NHMRC and NHMRC to research antibiotics and herbicides to tackle the exponential rise in resistance that is threatening our global health and agricultural industries. Dr Soares da Costa is passionate about disseminating research findings to the community, and currently serves in the Board of Directors of Science & Technology Australia, as the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's Chair of Communications and Editor of the Australian Biochemist magazine. In her talk, she will discuss how weeds are winning the war against herbicides and what we can do to keep them under control. |