Thank you to everyone who attended Soapbox Science Sydney 2020!
Our Speakers
Lara Glass
Dr Natalie Matosin
Nisha Duggan
Lara is a PhD student from the Schizophrenia Research Lab at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Lara’s work focuses on auto-immunity and how this impacts schizophrenia. Hear why Lara is passionate about schizophrenia research.
Nisha Duggan
Dr Natalie Matosin
Nisha Duggan
Nisha is a PhD candidate at The University of Sydney working in the fields of organic chemistry and chemical biology. She works on developing new therapies for the treatment of stroke, in particular using spider venom to design new drugs.
Dr Natalie Matosin
Dr Natalie Matosin
Dr Natalie Matosin
Dr Natalie Matosin is a molecular neurobiologist who studies the genetic and molecular basis of how stress raises risk to severe mental illness.
She uses postmortem brain samples from people who lived with psychiatric disorders to do this.
Hannah Law
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Natalie Matosin
Hannah is a PhD student at The Kirby Institute. Her research looks at the relationship between crucial immune cells in the lymph node and their circulating counterparts in the blood.
Hannah's work will hopefully lead to more effective vaccines and ways to improve our responses to infection.
Dr Jody Morgan
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Jody Moller is an associate research fellow within the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health at the University of Wollongong. Jody is a lab-based toxicology researcher whose research interests sit at the intersection of analytical chemistry and public health.
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Melinda Waterman
Dr Melinda Waterman is a lecturer and postdoctorate fellow at the University of Wollongong.
She is an early career biotechnologist examining the protective mechanisms and chemical signatures of moss species that live in temperate and Antarctic regions.
Utkarshaa Varshney
Utkarshaa Varshney
Utkarshaa Varshney
Utkarshaa is a final year PhD researcher at the University of New South Wales. Her work focuses on "Controlling the long-term degradation in current solar panels". In the existing times when the planet is facing its biggest ever crisis of Global Warming, she has taken a step towards tackling it first-hand.
Dr Siobhan Bradley
Utkarshaa Varshney
Utkarshaa Varshney
Dr Siobhan Bradley is a research fellow at Exciton Science & the University of Melbourne. She is a materials chemist with broad experience in the synthesis, characterisation and functionalisation of both structural and light-harvesting nanomaterials for energy conversion applications.
Dr Holly Tootell
Utkarshaa Varshney
Dr Jennifer Matthews
Holly Tootell is a Senior Lecturer in IT at the University of Wollongong. Holly’s work explores meaningful ways to understand both the adult and child perspectives in IT research. Holly believes that if we can provide positive technology encounters for children, we can create a much-needed social shift.
Dr Jennifer Matthews
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Dr Jennifer Matthews
Dr Jen Matthews is a Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research applies molecular techniques to investigate the symbiotic interactions that underpin coral health and function, to better inform conservation activities and help safeguard the world's coral reefs.
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Associate Professor Michelle Harvey is a medical entomologist specialising in the use of maggots to estimate time since death for the forensic sciences.
She also researches novel applications and approaches to maggot cleaning of human wounds.
Julianna Kadar
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Assoc. Prof. Michelle Harvey
Julianna is a PhD Candidate at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on uncovering the activity patterns and behaviours of the Port Jackson shark using accelerometers that function like Fitbits - but for sharks. Her study involves tagging and then tracking sharks to recover tag data.