Science Communication

I have a strong interest in science communication and science policy. Here’s a summary of a few of the projects I’ve worked on.

Scientific advisor for The Party, Guardian VR

I worked as the main scientific advisor on the Guardian’s short film The Party, which is designed to be an immersive experience to help people understand some of the challenges that autistic people face. I worked closely with the script writers and directors during the making of the film, as well as organising a number of discussion groups so that members of the autistic community could have an input into the film. You can read a bit more about the film (and other uses of virtual reality in autism research) here and you can listen to an interview I did for a podcast which discusses the film here.

Scientific consultant for the film The Reason I Jump.

I worked as a scientific consultant on the film adaptation of the award winning book The Reason I jump. The film was released in February 2020 and it received the Audience Award at Sundance festival.

Student media

During my PhD, I spent a year as a writer for the psychiatry department’s news team before taking on the role of editor for 2 years. You can read some of the articles I worked on here. At the end of my PhD, I then did a short interview with the news team about my thesis research. You can read that here.

I also co-founded and produced a podcast for the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE). You can listen to the podcasts here.

Policy work

During my PhD I completed policy placements at the Cabinet Office and the Government Office for Science. These were funded by the MRC and RCUK respectively.

I spent 3 months working at the Open Innovation Team, which is part of the Cabinet Office. I worked on a number of projects there, mainly focusing on bringing in academics with expertise in machine learning to support and facilitate work in government.

I also spent 3 months working at the Government Office for Science. The main focus of my work during this secondment was on the Future of the Sea publication.

If you’re a PhD student and would be interested in applying for the RCUK scheme, you can find more information here or feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.