21. Interview with scientist & visual artist Kate Cranney

This week we are so excited to catch up with one of our University of Melbourne Science Communication alumni who is doing amazing things in the world! Kate Cranney is a science communicator, scientist and visual artist. She combines these skills in her role as a Communications Advisor with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. Kate's background is diverse. She's climbed trees in Borneo, scaled volcanoes in Papua New Guinea, pulled snakes out of traps in the Simpson Desert, and counted turtle hatchlings in Solomon Islands … all in the name of science. With interests spanning ecology, the arts, science writing, education, podcasts and film, science communication was a natural fit. In her current role, she creates communication materials, delivers communications campaigns, liaises with the media, and runs storytelling training for the approximately 850 scientists in CSIRO's Land and Water, and Energy divisions. Kate holds a Master of Science (with Distinction), and a dual Bachelor of Laws / Environmental Science (with Honours). In 2018 she spent 10 months travelling as part of an ISSI Fellowship in Science Communication. She visited museums, aquariums and other science organisations in Scandinavia, Europe, Canada and the USA. Her task? To learn from the most creative, novel and effective forms of science communication, and to bring that knowledge back to Australia! This is the visualisation of Ira Glass’ ‘The Gap’ Kate mentions in the conversation: https://vimeo.com/85040589 You can follow Kate and see more of her work here: https://katecranney.com https://twitter.com/kateccranney https://www.instagram.com/kate.cranney.art https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-cranney-71864923 Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/t6pe