The Bushfire CRC participated in the
Australian Science Festival alongside the annual CRC Innovations
Conference at the National Convention Centre in Canberra in late
May 2009.
These two events under the one roof were an
excellent opportunity to showcase Bushfire CRC research to a wide
scientific, political and general audience. The Bushfire CRC used
this to promote bushfire science to schools (more than 12,000
children arrived by bus over the week), the general public, and to
invited parliamentarians, and department and embassy staff.
Encouragingly, our booth at the festival saw a
constant stream of school children through it, all eager to hear
about the science of bushfires. It was ranked eighth best out of
the 37 exhibitors by the school children – an excellent
outcome considering many of the big names in public science
communication were present.
Bushfire CRC post graduate student Matthew Phillips (project D2.1) from Deakin University
was shortlisted out of 35 applicants (in the top 4) for the
Co-operative Research Centre Association Early Career Scientist
Award at the CRC Association Conference. Matt gave a 10 min
presentation on his research into the fitness of tanker based fire
fighting crews. While his presentation was clear, robust and well
received the winner was a PhD scholar from the Oral Health CRC.
This was a high profile opportunity to expose
Matt and the Bushfire CRC to a broad national scientific and
political audience of more than 500 people. Matt’s work has
been made possible by the significant contribution of Bushfire CRC
member agencies who have supported his work.
