Guests
People who have been guests of Brains Matter and that I’ve had the fortune to interview have been:
Michael Feller - Michael wrote a thesis called “The Aryan Connection”, and discussed Nazis and their origins, and the neo-Nazis of today, and how it is affecting society.
4/12/2006 - Episode 8 - The Aryan Connection
Dr Djoymi Baker - Dr Baker wrote a PhD thesis entitled “Broadcast Space: TV Culture, Myth and Star Trek”, and talked to me about mythological references within Star Trek, and the reworking of ancient epics in modern formats.
18/2/2007 - Episode 18 - Star Trek and Mythology
Professor Duncan Forbes - Professor Forbes works at Swinburne University and is the Deputy Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Professor Forbes talked to me around his interests in galaxy formation and globular clusters.
13/3/2007 - Episode 21 - Galaxies and Globular Clusters
Professor John Lattanzio - Professor John Lattanzio is a stellar astrophysicist at Monash University, and is a member and fellow of many astronomical societies, including the IAU. I talked to him about stars and their formation, and his interest in AGB stars.
8/5/2007 - Episode 26 - Stellar Astophysics Part 1
14/5/2007 - Episode 27 - Stellar Astrophysics Part 2
31/1/2010 - Episode 108 - Is Intelligent Life Common in the Universe?
Dr Alan Dorin - Dr Alan Dorin is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University’s Centre for Electronic Media Art in the Faculty of Information Technology. His interests are in the philosophy and application of the principles of artificial life, in particular self-assembly and ecosystem simulation, to generative electronic art. He talked to me about how he has used IT to pursue his work interests.
28/5/2007 - Episode 29 - Computers, Philosophy and Art
Dr Zachary Moore - Dr Moore is from the Department of Biophysics and Molecular Genetics from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and he talked to me about evolution.
16/6/2007 - Episode 30 - Understanding Evolution
Dr Adrian Gentle - Dr Gentle is from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Southen Indiana; formerly of the Los Alamos National Laboratories, and an expert in Relativity and Regge Calculus. He talked to me about Special Relativity (episode 32), General Relativity (episode 33), and Regge Calculus (episodes 35 and 36)
7/7/2007 - Episode 32 - Special Relativity
13/7/2007 - Episode 33 - General Relativity
31/7/2007 - Episode 35 - Introduction to Regge Calculus
4/8/2007- Episode 36 - Regge Calculus
Briony Rogers - Briony Rogers is a civil engineer for a multinational engineering firm, specialising in water. She is also the president of the Victorian chapter of Engineers Without Borders (Australia), and talked to me about engineering and EWB
5/9/2007 - Episode 38 - Engineers Without Borders
Dr Roger Rassool - Dr Rassool is an elementary particle physicist from the University of Melbourne, and also runs a physics outreach program aimed at getting students interested in science.
10/9/2007 - Episode 39 - MUPPETS - Physics Outreach Program
16/9/2007 - Episode 40 - Particle Physics and PSI Lab research
22/9/2007 - Episode 41 - How elephants communicate
20/12/2008 - Episode 78 - Saving Asian Elephants Part 2
Professor Peter Doherty - Professor Doherty won the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1996, and was Australian of the Year in 1997. I talked to him about his work in immunology, his books, and his views on modern science.
7/10/2007 - Episode 42 - Immunology and the Nobel Prize
Dr Mark Boland - Dr Mark Boland started his career in researching fundamental processes in the atomic nucleus. As a user of overseas synchrotrons and other accelerators he conducted nuclear experiments to how the nuclear force binds neutrons and protons together. When Victoria decided to build a synchrotron, Mark made the jump into accelerator physics so he could use his skill in physics back home and reverse the brain drain. Mark helped commission the synchrotron and has been with the facility for four and a half years.
24/10/2007 - Episode 44 - Australian Synchrotron Part 1
25/10/2007 - Episode 45 - Australian Synchrotron Part 2
Professor Peter McIntyre - Professor McIntyre is the Head of Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne, and completed his BSc and PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at LaTrobe university before postdoctoral fellowships at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) Institute in London. He re-entered academic research in Oct 2005 after 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry working on drug discovery for chronic pain therapies with Novartis. He has published 13 papers in top ranked journals in the past 5 years and is a recognised leader in TRP channels. He talked to me about how we sense pain, the different types of pain, and their relationship to taste.
6/11/2007 - Episode 47 - Taste and Pain Part 1
13/11/2007 - Episode 48 - Taste and Pain Part 2
Dr Pamela Gay - Dr Gay received her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Texas in 2002, can be found at the physics department at the University of Southern Illinois, Edwardsville, and is also one of the hosts of the Astronomy Cast podcast.
26/11/2007 - Episode 49 - The Big Bang
14/7/2008 - Episode 67 - Arms of the Milky Way
Dr Todd Lane - Todd Lane earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Meteorology from Monash University in 2000 examining the generation of atmospheric gravity waves by mountains and thunderstorms. Between 2000 and 2005 he worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado USA. At NCAR his research was on many aspects of mesoscale meteorology, including thunderstorm dynamics, and clear-air turbulence. His current research interests include atmospheric dynamics, numerical modelling, and mesoscale meteorology.
9/1/2008 - Episode 51 - The experimental Helios NASA aircraft
18/1/2008 - Episode 52 - Turbulence and air travel
Lynne Kelly - Lynne is an educator and author, and has a background in engineering, science, teaching, and magic. She is well known in the Australian Skeptics movement. She has an interest in education, science, and critical thinking.
9/2/2008 - Episode 54 - Skeptics Guide
4/3/2008 - Episode 56 - Critical Thinking & Education Part 1
9/3/2008 - Episode 57 - Critical Thinking & Education Part 2
Professor David Karoly - Professor Karoly is the Federation Fellow at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is an expert on climate change, and was one of the lead authors of the IPCC report. He was also featured on the panel of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s discussion of the tv show ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’. Professor Karoly is also a Nobel Laureate, sharing in the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace alongside Al Gore and other IPCC colleagues.
23/2/2008 - Episode 55 - Climate Change
Dr Geoffrey Campbell - Dr Campbell is an honorary research fellow from the school of mathematics from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Campbell talked to me about the the mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and on his own research work.
18/3/2008 - Episode 58 - Srinivasa Ramanujan
27/4/2008 - Episode 61 - Visible Lattice Points
Adam Parker - Adam is a former artist, is currently a musician and design expert, and is completing his PhD in robotics. Adam has an interest in robots, technology, design, and the philosophy behind all of the above.
30/3/2008 - Episode 59 - Robots and Science Fiction
Dr Hunter Mulcare - Dr Mulcare is a clinical health psychologist who has done research into gender studies, and drug related topics.
21/4/2008 - Episode 60 - Drug & Alcohol Research
20/5/2008 - Episode 64 - The Psychology of Cancer Patients
Dr Sarah Maddison - Dr Maddison is an astrophysicist from the Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. She is also the co-ordinator of the Swinburne Astronomy Online program. She talked to me about planetary formation.
6/5/2008 - Episode 62 - Planetary Formation - Part 1
13/5/2008 - Episode 63 - Planetary Formation - Part 2
Dr Pilar Gil-Pons - Pilar was born in Xativa (Spain) and went to the University of Valencia, to the Imperial College of London and to the University of Barcelona, where she got her Licenciatura (sort of a longer version of a bachelor of science) in Physics in 1998. Subsequently, she then got a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education to do a PhD about the evolution of intermediate mass stars belonging to close binary systems. She completed her PhD thesis in 2003 and shortly afterwards got a position as collaborating professor at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia.
After her PhD, Pilar’s research has been related to the study of SAGB stars, especially at the extremely low metallicity regime. In 2007 she received an ARC grant to work on SAGB stars and she got a grant from the Spanish Ministry of education to work at Monash University for 6 months. I spoke to her in her office at Monash.
3/6/2008 - Episode 65 - Binary Stars
Dr Seth Shostak - Seth is an astronomer with a BA in physics from Princeton and a PhD in astronomy from Caltech, and is involved with in the SETI Institute’s research. Before SETI, Seth did research work on galaxies using radio telescopes at observatories and universities in America and Europe. He spoke to me about SETI.
18/6/2008 - Episode 66 - The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence
20/7/2008 - Episode 98 - Science and the movies
Marc West - Marc is the host of the Mr Science Show, a science podcast, and was the science reporter for China Radio International. He is currently the editor for the maths magazine “Plus Magazine” in London. He is also a science writer and communicator.
13/8/2008 - Episode 68 - Fictional Scientists
3/2/2009 - Episode 84 - The Science and Psychology of Cricket - Part 1
10/2/2009 - Episode 85 - The Science and Psychology of Cricket - Part 2
6/3/2009 - Episode 87 - Science Songs
Marco Tippmer - Marco is a Virtual World Strategy Consultant, and has over nine years experience in IT Consultancies working for government bodies, health, utilities and finance organisations in several European Countries. His focus is on IT Strategy Development, combining established and emerging technologies to create innovative solutions and solve complex business problems.
His involvement in Second Life started back in September 2006 with the setting up and opening of PA Consulting’s virtual office. Establishing the presence was only the first step towards the development of a whole new set of business applications utilising virtual world technology.
Marco has developed deep insights into how this exciting new technology can be applied to various service industries and he was a member of PA Consulting’s IT Strategy practice from 2005 to 2007, previously working for Unisys Corporation in Austria, Switzerland and the UK.
He is now working for the Business & Information Strategy division of Capgemini Consulting.
Marco talked to me about this exicting topic from his home in London.
22/8/2008 - Episode 70 - Virtual Worlds
Professor Mike Sandiford - Professor Sandiford is an ARC senior research fellow at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is an expert in geotectonics, petroleum geology, sedimentology, geothermal energy, and geochronology, amongst other things.
He talked to me about geothermal energy.
5/9/2008 - Episode 71 - Geothermal Energy
Dr Orly Lacham-Kaplan - Dr Lacham-Kaplan is a senior research fellow at the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Lacham-Kaplan was also the 2007 winner of the BrainLink Prize for her work into development of methods to overcome infertility.
In to this episode she talks to me about what stem cells are, how stem cell research can benefit medical science, and some of Dr Lacham-Kaplan’s research into infertility - and how stem cells are a key component in that research.
18/9/2008 - Episode 72 - Stem cells and infertility
Professor Roger Short - Professor Short is the Wexler Professorial Fellow at the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne. He was was the Foundation director of the Medical Research Council’s Unit of Reproductive Biology in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1972 to 1982, and prior to that, he had been on the scientific staff of the Agricultural Research council’s Unit of Reproductive Physiology and Biochemistry in Cambridge, England from 1956 to 1972. In 1989 he was a consultant to the Global Program on AIDS of the World Health Organisation in Geneva.
4/10/2008 - Episode 73 - Asian Elephants Part 1
16/10/2008 - Episode 74 - Asian Elephants Part 2
18/12/2008 - Episode 77 - Saving Asian Elephants Part 1
20/12/2008 - Episode 78 - Saving Asian Elephants Part 2
1/4/2010 - Episode 112 - Taronga Zoo Baby Elephant Birth
Dr Richard Stancliffe - Dr Stancliffe studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and is an expert in the phases of stellar evolution - and also happens to be an expert in Middle Egyptian!
He talked to me about First Stellar Generations.
30/10/2008 - Episode 75 - First Stellar Generations Part 1
9/11/2008 - Episode 76 - First Stellar Generations Part 2
Dr Allie Ford - Dr Ford received her PhD from Keele University in the UK. Her research interests include abundances in solar-type stars, Echelle Spectroscopy, Lithium in stars, Science in education, Observational Astronomy and Astrobiology.
I talked to Dr Ford about astrobiology.
22/1/2009 - Episode 81 - Astrobiology Part 1
26/1/2009 - Episode 82 - Astrobiology Part 2
2/2/2009 - Episode 83 - Extract of Astrobiology Interview for 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast
31/1/2010 - Episode 108 - Is Intelligent Life Common in the Universe?
Dr Ross Church - Dr Church received his PhD in Stellar Evolution and Stellar Dynamics from Cambridge University. He followed this by postdoctoral research at Lund University in Sweden. He is currently a research fellow at Monash University working on AGB stars, binary stars and stellar dynamics.
20/2/2009 - Episode 86 - Hypervelocity Stars
17/3/2009 - Episode 88 - Binary Star Formation
Dr Daniel Price - Dr Price is a Monash Research Fellow at Monash University. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and his research interests include Computational Astrophysics involving Magnetohydrodynamics, Star Formation and the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method.
14/4/2009 - Episode 89 - Stellar Formation
Dr Amanda Barnard - Dr Barnard did her PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics at RMIT University in Melbourne. In 2008 she won the L’Oreal Australia Women in Science Fellowship. She is currently working at the CSIRO and spoke to me about nanotechnology.
22/4/2009 - Episode 90 - What is Nanotechnology?
Dr Maria Lugaro - Dr Lugaro is a Monash Research Fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where she received her PhD. Prior to that, Maria studied in Italy, and she is an expert in the abundances of nuclei produced in giant stars and compare them to spectroscopic observations of stellar abundances and laboratory analysis of exotic meteoritic materials. She talked to me about pre-solar meteoritic grains.
11/5/2009 - Episode 91 - Pre-Solar Grains
Dr Brian Schmidt - Brian Schmidt is an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, and works in areas such as supernovae, Gamma Ray Bursts, and is heading a project to build a new Telescope which will map the Southern Sky called SkyMapper. He is also the Federation Fellow at The Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory. He received his PhD from Harvard University, and I talked to him about the work he did in the discovery that the universe was accelerating in its expansion.
23/5/2009 - Episode 92 - The acceleration of the universe
Dr Andrew Prentice - Andrew Prentice is a Reader at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He has interests in the formation of the solar system, and mathematical description of the physical and chemical processes responsible for the formation of the planetary systems and the satellite systems of the major planets.
3/6/2009 - Episode 93 - Supersonic Turbulence and Plantary Formation
10/6/2009 - Episode 94 - Planets and Satellite Formation
17/6/2009 - Episode 95 - Saturn and it’s system
17/8/2009 - Episode 100 - The Century
Dr Ginger Campbell - Dr Campbell is a physician from Alabama, USA, and is the host of the Brain Science Podcast and has been fascinated with all things related to brain science. I talked to her about brain chemistry, plasticity, and brain imaging.
6/7/2009 - Episode 96 - Brain Chemistry, Plasticity and Imaging
Dr Rosemary Mardling - Dr Mardling is an astrophysicist from Monash University and has research interests in dynamical evolution of stellar and planetary systems, dynamical evolution of star clusters; gravitational interactions in the cores of stars clusters (globular clusters, open clusters, and galactic nuclei); tidal capture; the stability of three-body systems and chaos theory; tides in stars and planets; the dynamical and tidal evolution of extra-solar planetary systems; formation of low-mass X-ray binaries; pulsar binaries; and planet formation. She talked to me about extra-solar planets.
11/7/2009 - Episode 97 - Extra Solar Planets
Dr Simon Singh is originally a particle physicist, earning his PhD in particle physics at CERN and Cambridge University. He is now well known as an author, journalist and TV producer, having written books and produced TV shows on topics such as the Enigma Machine (”The Code Book”), Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Big Bang, and most recently, “Trick or Treatment”, a book on alternative medicine. He spoke to me about the wonder of science and mathematics, and also on what inspired him, and his latest book.
17/8/2009 - Episode 100 - The Century
Dr Paul Francis is an astronomer from the Australian National University who does research on comets, quasars, high redshift galaxies, and novel interactive teaching techniques.
20/9/2009 - Episode 101 - Comets, Pink Black Holes & Teaching Astronomy
Dr Owen Carter is senior research fellow at the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control at Curtin University in Western Australia. He is also the recipient of the Healthway Research Fellowship in Tobacco Control at CBRCC
30/10/2009 - Episode 102 - The Psychology of Tobacco Advertising
20/1/2010 - Episode 106 - Research into the Ultraviolet Index
Nick Miller began his journalism career at The West Australian newspaper in Perth, covering everything from popular culture to police and politics. He worked as the paper’s Melbourne correspondent for three years, writing about gangland killers, terrorists and the Commonwealth Games. He moved to The Age and edited the Next technology section for almost two years, before switching to the Health area.
19/12/2009 - Episode 103 - English libel law and censorship in science reporting
Dr Kristen Panfilio is a developmental geneticist whose interests have swung from molecular evolution of the cellular details of morphogenesis. She received her PhD from Cambridge University and is currently working at the University of Cologne, Germany.
20/12/2009 - Episode 104 - Hox Genes and Evolutionary Developmental Genetics
Professor Bryan Gaensler is an ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney, having previously held positions at MIT, the Smithsonian Institution, and Harvard University. He works on multi-wavelength observations of magnetism, neutron stars, and interstellar gas, and is the project scientist for the Square Kilometre Array. He was the 1999 Young Australian of the Year, gave the 2001 Australia Day Address to the nation, and was awarded the 2006 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize by the American Astronomical Society. He talked to me about magnetism in the universe.
28/12/2009 - Episode 105 - Magnetism in the Universe
Dr Yin Paradies is an Aboriginal-Anglo-Asian Darwinian who has lived in Melbourne since 2007. He is a Research Fellow jointly at the Menzies School of Health Research and the University of Melbourne through the NHMRC Capacity-building in Indigenous Policy Relevant Health Research (CIPHER) program. He has qualifications in mathematics and computing (BSc), medical statistics (MMedStats), public health (MPH), and social epidemiology (PhD) and his research focuses on the health effects of racism as well as anti-racism theory, policy and practice. Yin also teaches multicultural competence to researchers and professionals in Indigenous affairs. Yin has received a range of awards including a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley, the Australia Day Council’s 2002 Young Achiever of the Year award, and Scholar of the Year in the 2007 National NAIDOC Awards.
26/1/2010 - Episode 107 - The Effects of Racism
Marion Anderson is a planetary geologist who has helped select landing sites for the current generation of NASA Mars Rovers. She teaches the first year geosciences units within the Faculty of Science at Monash University. Marion also has a background in zoology, cell biology and engineering, and is a member of the advisory board of the Victorian Space Science Education Centre.
31/1/2010 - Episode 108 - Is Intelligent Life Common in the Universe?
Evan Bittner is a postgraduate student at the University of Melbourne who is studying Asian Elephants. He has worked at the Melbourne Zoo, and in countries such as Laos in studying and understanding elephants, and has a strong interest in the conservation of the Asian Elephant.
15/3/2010 - Episode 110 - Asian Elephant Conservation - Part 1
27/3/2010 - Episode 111 - Asian Elephant Conservation - Part 2
1/4/2010 - Episode 112 - Taronga Zoo Baby Elephant Birth
Maria Maltseva is an attorney from Washington State in the US, and is well known in the Skeptics community in the US. She spoke to me about the Discovery Institute and the agenda they are trying to push in science classes in the USA.
12/4/2010 - Episode 113 - The Discovery Institute
Corin Storkey is a PhD student at the Bio 21 Institute at the University of Melbourne. Corin’s research is focused on synthesising new compounds that may one day be used as pharmaceuticals to treat patients suffering from NIDD.
30/4/2010 - Episode 114 - Beauty and the Type 2 Diabetes Synthetic Chemist Geek
24/7/2010 - Episode 119 - Cancer Drug Research
Dr Robyn Pickering undertook her undergraduate and MSc studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She completed a PhD at the University of Bern, Switzerland in May 2009 and is currently a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Robyn’s research interests lie in using isotope geochemistry to investigate the age and palaeo-environment of mainly carbonate rocks. She uses U-Pb and U-Th dating methods to provide ages for cave deposits (speleothems) and is particularly interested in the development of the associated laboratory and analytical techniques. Robyn has worked mainly on cave deposits containing early human (hominin) fossil remains, including the new hominin species Australopithecus sediba, and is also interested in human evolution and providing a precise chronology for evolutionary developments. She is currently working on the South African early hominin bearing cave sites near Johannesburg and the early human occupation sites of Pinnacle Points on the southern South African coast.
5/5/2010 - Episode 115 - The Discovery of Australopithecus Sediba
Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich’s research centers on understanding the changes in the biota of Earth during the late Proterozoic, at a time when complex animals first appeared and the major animal phyla were differentiating. She is the Founding Director of the Monash Science Centre on the Clayton campus of Monash University.
20/5/2010 - Episode 116 - The Monash Science Centre
12/7/2010 - Episode 118 - Palaeontology 101
15/8/2010 - Episode 121 - From Slime to Dinosaurs
Dr Michael Brown is an an observational astronomer whose current research interests include the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the growth of galaxies over cosmic time. He lectures at the School of Physics at Monash University, Australia.
8/6/2010 - Episode 117 - Galaxy Evolution and Active Galactic Nuclei
Professor Richard Wassersug is from the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology from Dalhousie University in Canada. He is an expert in herpetology, and of late, has done a lot of work in the area of prostrate cancer.
10/8/2010 - Episode 120 - Talking to a Herpetologist
Bec Crew is the author of the Save Your Breath For Running Ponies science blog, which won the 2010 National Science Week’s Big Blog Theory award in the Blogging category. She also works at Cosmo Magazine in Sydney.
20/8/2010 - Episode 122 - Science and Education Policy and Election Reactions
Anthony David is a senate candidate for the Australian Democrats party in the 2010 federal election in the ACT, and talked to me about his thoughts on science and science policy.
20/8/2010 - Episode 122 - Science and Education Policy and Election Reactions
Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki started his science communication career in 1981 whilst a medical student, and has become one of Australia’s best known science communicators. He has degrees in mathematics, biomedical engineering, medicine and surgery. He has worked as a physicist, labourer, roadie for bands, car mechanic, film-maker, hospital scientific officer, biomedical engineer, TV weatherman, taxi driver, and medical doctor. In 2002 he was awarded an Ig-Nobel prize for his research on belly button lint.
20/8/2010 - Episode 122 - Science and Education Policy and Election Reactions
