June Soapbox Science Galway Returns via Livestream

NUI Galway’s fourth annual Soapbox Science Galway is set to return when twelve female scientists will take to their virtual soap boxes and talk about their remarkable research in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The event will take place from 12-2pm on Saturday, 4 July, streaming live on Facebook, and is free and open to the public.

Soapbox Science is a global public outreach platform for promoting women scientists and the science they do. Events transform public areas into an arena for public learning and scientific debate and they follow the format of London Hyde Park’s ‘Speaker’s Corner’, which is historically an arena for public debate. Soapbox Science 2020 is taking place in several countries around the world including Ireland, Australia, Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, the UK and US.

Soapbox Science Galway ensures that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy, learn from, question, probe, interact with and be inspired by some of our leading female scientists who will share their latest discoveries and answer the science questions people have been burning to ask.

Talks will cover a diverse range of topics ranging from bioengineering, marine pollution, and glaciology to physiology, psychology, and nanomaterials.

Soapbox Science Galway 2020 participants were selected from a competitive pool of researchers, and this year’s speakers from NUI Galway and Galway-Mayo Institute (GMIT) include:

• Dr Margaret Jackson, NUI Galway – “What can glaciers tell us about past climate?”
• Elena Pagter, GMIT – “What’s all the commotion? Plastic pollution in the ocean”
• Dr Nadeeka Rathnayake Kankanamge, NUI Galway – “Freshwater pollutants and how they transform in marine transitional zones”
• Gillian Murphy, NUI Galway – “Developing a Diabetes Drug Delivery Hydrogel using a Heart-Shaped Protein”
• Maeve Louise Farrell, NUI Galway – “Making Waves: What’s Under the PIER?”
• Emily O’Dowd, NUI Galway – “How can we help our health service learn from its mistakes?”
• Aisling Murphy, NUI Galway – “Titanium Bone Plates - Is There an Alternative?”
• Dr Ananya Gupta, NUI Galway – “The importance of physical activity - being Active is being Healthy”
• Chloe Walsh, NUI Galway – “Autism-friendly doctor visits: Tips for success”
• Sandra Brandon, NUI Galway – “Can a lung exercise programme improve my ability to eat, drink and swallow?”
• Marta Cabello, NUI Galway – “PalaeoExplorers: Sailing back in time to discover how the ocean will affect Ireland's climate future”
• Duré Basit, NUI Galway – “A pencil, some sticky tape and a Nobel Prize”

Soapbox Science Ireland events are organised by Dr Jessamyn Fairfield, School of Physics at NUI Galway and Dr Emily Growney, Boston Scientific. Dr Fairfield is a nanoscientist and comedian, whose research is focused on building electronics like the brain. She is a lecturer in the School of Physics and CÚRAM (Centre for Research in Medical Devices) at NUI Galway. Dr Growney is a tissue engineer who completed a CÚRAM Marie Curie MedTRAIN fellowship on biocompatible neural electrode coatings at NUI Galway before taking up her current position at Boston Scientific. Soapbox Science will also run online with Dublin-based speakers on Saturday, 11 July.

Soapbox Science Galway is sponsored by NUI Galway’s Office of the Vice President for Research.

The livestream will be hosted at https://www.facebook.com/soapboxsciencegalway/. For more information about Soapbox Science, visit: http://soapboxscience.org/ or follow @SoapboxSciIRL on Twitter.

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