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Today's episode is a deep dive with A/Prof Jen Martin.
She's dedicated her professional life to teaching researchers how to communicate effectively. She founded the science communication teaching program at the University of Melbourne, and is one of the hosts of the Let's Talk SciComm podcast.
Jen's also an incredible science communicator in her own right. She's currently the vice president of Australian science communicators. She's been talking weekly about science on RRR for more than 15 years. And she's also the author of popular science book, "Why am I like this?"
Our conversation covers —
Why effective communication is so important for researchers who want to generate impact
How you can build your confidence when starting out
How research organisations can create a safe space for communication and connection
Her work with Homeward bound, and some specific advice for female and non-binary researchers
And a whole lot more...
Enjoy, and stay tuned for next week's episode with Prof Phillip Dawson on Becoming a Key Person of Influence in Your Field. We'll be releasing weekly for the first 12 episodes, and then switching to every other week to give us a bit more time to release some of the other exciting Amplifying Research projects we have in store for you.
Let's Talk SciComm podcast:
https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/science-communication/blog-posts/podcast/
Find Prof Jen Martin online:
https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/6492-jen-martin
https://twitter.com/scidocmartin
https://www.instagram.com/scidocmartin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-martin-scicomm
Buy Jen's book, "Why Am I Like This?":
Find Chris online:
https://www.amplifyingresearch.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispahlow
Resources mentioned:
"Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown
https://brenebrown.com/book/dare-to-lead
Chapters:
(00:00:00) Opening Quote
(00:00:26) Intro
(00:02:37) Jen's transition from scientist to science communicator.
(00:12:21) How to get started as an ECR
(00:17:17) Building your confidence
(00:21:15) Homeward Bound
(00:32:42) Starting later in your career
(00:34:44) Creating the space for communication and visibility
(00:53:51) What should research organisations do?
(01:03:18) Getting your start as a science communicator
(01:07:22) Outro
Quotes:
"Leadership really is about creating a ladder to bring other people up. And so if you are in a position that you could provide communication training for people in your team... I think that's one of the best things that you could do. A lab head who says, learning this too, but I think it's really important that we all have the skills to share our work with, the different audiences in different ways. Let's get some training together. I I think that's remarkable leadership."
"I had this strong sense of, I want to do something useful in the world. And, and nature conservation seemed like a really good, useful thing, but then... You know, you get towards the end of your PhD, and what the university is telling you to do is to publish academic papers and go to academic conferences. What was really clear to me was that the only way the information that I'd collected over many, many years working in this forest, the only way that knowledge would have any impact in the real world on the conservation of this species or our understanding of the behaviour of this species was that if I was sharing it with local farmers, local land managers, local politicians, local children. If I was just writing academic papers, none of the people who might have any role in caring for the land that these animals needed or have any role in making decisions about how forest is managed. None of them would ever read those papers..."
"My vision was always that rather than training dedicated science communicators, instead, what we needed to do was make sure that as many science students as possible got at least some basic training in how to craft a narrative, how to engage an audience, how to drop the jargon, you know, how to bring people in and make science more accessible and how to Invite people in so that even people who haven't had the privilege of a science education feel included and feel like science is relevant and meaningful to them. So that's what I've been building for 15 years now..."
"The most important thing is making the decision. This is something that's important. This is something that's going to stand me in really good stead for my career to improve my communication skills..."
"It's an iterative process of being courageous, having a go, putting yourself out there, getting some feedback, thinking about how you could do it better, always tailoring our messages as effectively as we can for different audiences, not just churning out the same PowerPoint or the same whatever it is that we prepared once, you know, six months ago for one audience..."
"I think communication is a really beautiful craft, but it's not something that you pick up by osmosis. It's not something that most of us are naturally good at. It's not something you're ever going to just tick the box and say, yep, that one's done. It's just something that we always have to work on. But making that commitment to say, this is something important enough that I am going to work on it... I think it's just essential for all of us."
"We ask our students at the start of every semester, why are you studying science? And no one ever says because it's fun or because I want to be rich or because it seemed like a good idea at the time... Every single person says because I want to make a difference in the world. I want to do something useful in the time I have on the planet. And if we can't communicate about what we're doing, I think it's really difficult to have that impact."
"The more clear we can be with the people around us about what their priorities are, or what needs to be done, what's the most urgent... how can we prioritize our time better? I think just that whole idea of clear is kind, it's so helpful."
"Be very clear on what it is that you want to spend your time doing and then start to create evidence that you can do that thing. That would be my main advice. So if you want to be making videos... Whether it's TikTok or YouTube, you need to be pumping out content. You need to be honing your skill. You know, there's plenty of lovely kind know, moral stories out there that you don't create high quality products by slaving away on one thing days, weeks, months. You get high quality products by making a million of them. You know, you develop your skills by just trying new things all the time, getting feedback, trying it again..."
