Welcome to October and #CitSciOzOnline!
We are very excited to launch our month-long online celebration of citizen science on Wednesday 7th October, with fabulous speakers, interesting topics, coffee room chats, prizes and more! Read on for all the details, including the event summary, speaker bios, registration details and sponsor information. This is a free event for ACSA members, so if you’ve been thinking about joining us, now is the time!
With thanks to our sponsors…
Registration & Tickets
Get your tickets here! One ticket will gain you access to the whole event, and you can attend as many sessions as you wish. All information will be sent to you via email prior to each session.
This event operates on a ‘pay what you can afford basis’ (from $0-$20) and is FREE for for Australian Citizen Science Association members.
Session Details
(All sessions are in Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
7th October 1PM – 5PM: Early-Mid Career Researcher (EMCR) symposium
This symposium will unite citizen science-aligned researchers in Australia to interrogate and explore research and practice in citizen science across the country. Featuring keynotes, lighting talks, Q&A, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities, this symposium will be the starting point for a community of practice in citizen science research; uniting interdisciplinary researchers, citizens, and others from outside of institutional settings. All welcome to attend.
October 14th 7PM – 8PM: Disaster Response Stream followed by the Resilience Session 8:15PM – 9PM
This theme will celebrate and explore the unique platform that citizen science provides for the collection of diverse and comparative data and how the unification of global citizens through science can improve our ability to recover from extreme events. Following on from this session, join us for an informal chat about resilience which has been trending in 2020- but what does it mean in practice?
October 21st 7PM – 8PM: Connections & Partnerships Stream followed by Coffee & Networking session 8:15PM – 9PM
Connections are at the core of citizen science, which brings together a diverse array of people to share science and creativity through collaboration. This theme will focus on powerful examples of citizen science as a way to connect and foster impact. Stick around afterwards for a virtual coffee and some citizen science networking!
October 28th 7PM – 8PM: Innovation Stream followed by CitSci Soiree 8:15PM – 9PM
New approaches and technology are pushing the boundaries of the ways that citizen science can contribute to a range of social and ecological outcomes. This theme will unite cutting edge enabling technologies with citizen science approaches and highlight opportunities for new research. After the stream join the ACSA MC team for a networking session to wind down the event.
EMCR Symposium – Speaker Bios
Our EMCR Symposium is broken into three sessions, each with a keynote speaker and 4 lightning talks. We are really excited about the calibre of speakers and hope that this symposium will be the starting point for a community of practice in citizen science research; uniting interdisciplinary researchers, citizens, and others from outside of institutional settings.
Bios for our three keynote speakers are provided below. For the full speaker list & bios, please see our event webpage.
Session 1: Research using citizen science data
Maggie Riddington
Co-founder and former president of the Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH)
Maggie is the co-founder and former-president of Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH), a volunteer-run citizen science community organisation working to protect threatened wildlife in the forests of Victoria. Maggie originally trained as an ecologist studying cool temperate rainforest, but turned her love for nature, forests and climate justice from a career in research to one in advocacy. She now works at the Australian Conservation Foundation as a community organiser.
Lightning Talks:
Dr Samantha Rowbotham | Stuart Harris | Dr Mary Myla Adnamon | Dr Tim Kariotis
Session #2: Researching with citizen scientists and running citizen science projects
Dr Ruth DeSouza
Multidisciplinary educator, researcher and consultant
Dr Ruth DeSouza is a highly experienced multidisciplinary educator, researcher and consultant, specialising in cross cultural engagement, cultural safety, and the interface of digital technologies within CALD communities. Her background is in nursing where she has extensive experience as a clinician, researcher and academic in New Zealand and Australia. Ruth is a 2020 RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, based in the School of Art and a member of the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Capability Platform (ECP). Her fellowship project aims to engage health professionals in finding new ways to understand, co-design and implement sustainable cultural safety initiatives in a range of health contexts.
Lightning Talks:
Dr Emilie Ens | Fam Charko | Mallika Robinson | Jessie Oliver
Session #3: Research about citizen science
Dr Vicki Martin
Research fellow for the Queensland University of Technology
Vicki is an environmental social scientist with research interests in communication, human behaviour, and public engagement in environmental issues. Her PhD in science communication explored the role of marine citizen science for improving Australians’ engagement with science more broadly. This work led to her selection in 2017 as the first social scientist in the prestigious Rose Postdoctoral Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – home of world-leading citizen science projects. Vicki’s research at the Lab helped identify barriers to participation of diverse audiences in citizen science, improved the Lab’s understanding of the different needs and interests of key target audiences, and realised the value of social scientific research in evidence-based engagement strategies. Vicki is currently based at QUT as a Research Fellow, and is also collaborating with marine scientists in Chile on a large-scale marine debris citizen science project across 11 Latin American countries on the Pacific Coast.
Lightning Talks:
Debbie Gonzalez Canada | Dr Cobi Calyx | Dr Sam Illingworth | Rachel Hendery
Event Sponsors
This event would not be possible without our sponsors. ACSA has been able to keep the cost of this event low thanks to their generous support. Our key sponsor for the EMCR Symposium this week is the Theo Murphy Initiative (Australian Academy of Science) who have generously sponsored the EMCR Symposium, as well as providing webinar platform for the entire month.
