As we launch National Science Week and Flinders' annual I-WiSH (Inspiring Women in Science & Health) conference, Flinders invites teachers, Secondary students and their parents to our National Science Week community event.
The event will be held in the Flinders Performance Centre from 3:30pm - 4:30pm and will feature leading researchers from the University of Queensland and UniSC who will share their cutting-edge science and health research.
This event includes an interactive panel of researchers and doctoral students who will share and answer questions about their varied career pathways in their chosen fields.
This is a great opportunity for Secondary students and parents to learn more about future pathways in Science and can help inform opportunities about Senior subject selection.
While this is a free community event, we request your RSVP to assist with catering.
Our panel includes:
Rossana Ruggeri
Rossana is a Cosmologist who studies the properties of the Universe on the largest of scales. By mapping the positions of millions of galaxies, she investigates the unknown physics of the dark energy which drives the evolution of the Universe today, and the physics just after the Big Bang. Rosanna is actively participating in key experiments designed to understand dark energy and gravity. Rosanna is co-chair of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument lensing working group and an active member of the Vera Rubin Observatory and the Dark Energy Survey.
Josephine Bowles
Jo leads research in the area of mammalian developmental reproductive biology and embryology and has extensive expertise in the associated technologies. She is particularly interested in germ cell biology and the mechanisms by which germ cells are instructed to proceed along the pathway towards oocytes or sperm. From a clinical perspective, her work is relevant to our understanding of human fertility, the aetiology of testicular cancer and questions of basic stem cell biology, all of which she is currently exploring through nationally funded research projects.
Naomi Fitzpatrick
Naomi is an Old Flinderian (Flinders alumni) and Accredited Practising Dietitian, sports dietitian and credentialled eating disorders dietitian. Naomi was awarded her Masters of Dietetics from the University of Queensland and is currently completing her doctorate with the QUEX Institute. Naomi’s doctoral research is investigating the impacts of two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, on macular health. Naomi’s other research interests include factors influencing food-body congruence, and advocating for weight- and size-inclusive healthcare.
Cassady Swinbourne
Cassady is a PhD student studying in the Water-Energy-Carbon Group at the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Queensland. Cassady’s research focuses on the co-benefits and trade-offs between different components of the urban water cycle, with a particular focus on how these interactions manifest in WSUD infrastructure and during periods of droughts and high rainfall. Her work is informed by systems and resilience theory, and her background in Mathematics, which she studied in her Bachelor of Science at the University of Tasmania.
Samantha Stephens
Samantha is a Research Program Manager at the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation. Members of this centre produce evidence-based research in healthy behaviours including physical activity and nutrition to inform policy and practices in health prevention. The centre utilises expertise across UQ to bring together research organisations, healthcare, government, industry and community sectors at local, state, national and international levels. Sam is an expert in the field of workplace sedentary behaviour, in understanding how behaviour change strategies can be used and targeted to achieve a change in sedentary time spent in the workplace.
