Two members of the MRC CMM team recently took part in the Soapbox Science festival on Exeter Quayside. Soapbox Science is a global movement to give a platform for women and non-binary researchers to highlight their work to the public. Taking inspiration from Speakers’ Corner in London, scientists have to present their research with simple props and their voice – no laptops or PowerPoint in sight! This means that the participants have to come up with novel ways to engage the public audience.
Alison Gifford gave a talk on health inequalities and Cryptococcus, and Dr Liliane Mukaramera presented about the good and bad fungi that live all around us.
Here Alison tells us about her experience giving a presentation at the event:
“I am a first year clinical PhD student studying a fungus called Cryptococcus which is the most common cause of meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. I am also a trainee Paediatric doctor and am passionate about global child health inequalities.
I applied to Soapbox Science because I loved their ethos on bringing science to the public and promoting women in STEM. I am a working mum to three young boys and want it to be completely normal for them, and everyone else, to see women at the forefront of science and know that women are capable of doing anything that they want to do.
I spoke about the fungus Cryptococcus, how it can reach the brain to cause meningitis, and how this is diagnosed by doctors. I explained about the size of the problem in sub-Saharan Africa and that my PhD involved investigating the immune response within a child’s brain.
My audience seemed to start small and then grow larger and larger, with lots of people surprised at the extent of health inequalities in children and intrigued to how a fungus can be so deadly. I found communicating my research to the public immensely fulfilling and I would encourage other women to sign up next year!”
Alison giving her Soapbox Science talk
Alison and her ‘props’
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