After a successful inaugural event in at the 2018 May Festival, HSRU research Dr Heidi Gardner lead Soapbox Science Aberdeen for a second year running.
Soapbox Science is a novel public engagement platform that aims to promote women in science, and the research that they do. The first Soapbox Science event took place in London in 2011, and the outreach event has grown since then; this year there are events going on across the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Nigeria and Argentina.
The Aberdeen event was part of the University’s wider May Festival activities, and this year’s line-up of 12 speakers included talks on topics such as ageing, cancer, nutrition, space science, research governance, and microbiology. Speakers came from various parts of the University of Aberdeen, as well as the Robert Gordon University, the James Hutton Institute, and the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Ourega- Zoé Ejebu from our sister unit, the Health Economics Research Unit, also gave a wonderful presentation (in both English and French!) titled ‘Health Economics: The caring side of economics’.
Later on this year Heidi will be leading another Soapbox Science event that will take place in the centre of Aberdeen City as part of European Researchers’ Night. More information will be released over the coming weeks, but if you’re in Aberdeen make sure you keep the afternoon of Saturday 28th September free!