Science Communication

Science is my Wonderland ¹ and Mathematics makes it tick

Maths makes me excited, science gets me giddy and I love a good story, the curiouser^{2 1}, the better.

The result? I get really excited and giddy and then tell curious stories! What are these curious stories? Why, the best way to explain it is to do it ¹.

Whimsical and Scientifical Short Talks

Think of these as tasters for what I hope to be longer projects in the future (interested? email me!)

Wisdom From Wonderland:

• Data, Data Everywhere But Not An Insight In Sight

• Nonsense Inference and How to Avoid It

• How Rubber Ducks Taught Us About the North Pacific
• How Do We Know Humans Are Causing Climate Change?

• Really Short Talks

  Why Do We Need to Prove 1+1=2?

Longer More Curious Stories (Lectures)

• Exploring Mathematical Ocean Sciences. Lecture Theatre at the Royal Institution for Climate Innovation Day

  Audience: Year 5-6 students + General

• Go With The Flow: Introduction to Fluid Dynamics Session (Sutton Trust Summer School)

  Audience: Year 12 students

• Meet an Oceanographically-Enabled Mathematical Statistician: (Imperial College Outreach)

  Audience: Year 12 students

Presenter Clips

You know what would be cool? Being a science presenter on CBBC (interested? email me!). Here are some miscellaneous clips of me in (slightly unserious) Presenter Mode:

• Science Challenge Promo Video
• Vanessa Madu in Presenter Mode for 3 minutes straight

Science Nursery Rhymes and Other Poetry

I did this for the first time to prove a point to a friend, namely that it’s possible to take any scientific topic and make it engaging, accessible and appropriate for any audience; now I do its rather fun:

• Nursery Rhymes for Curious Minds: Lessons in Bayesian Statistics

  This article is the precurser to the Wisdom from Wonderland Talk Series ¹

• The Universe, in Rhyme and Verse: When a Star Gets Old

Science Art

I find it interesting when people assert that you’re either a maths person or an english person, or a science person or an arts person. Say it with me, 1… 2… 3… FALSE DICHOTOMY.

Communicating science through art tells allows you to tell stories with more depth than with words alone.

• The Making of a Modeller

  Challenger Marine Society Art and Photography Competition 2024 (First Runner-up).

• Huxley Building Foyer Windows, Imperial College London

  Across seven consecutive windows: mathematics’ history from 2700 BC until the present day.³

Doing a PhD and Science Communication? Why so much effort?

Perspective matters. From where I’m standing, Maths is one of the closest things we have to magic, but many people will never see that. After all, how does one find wonder in maths when all they are ever presented with are problems; not for the fun of solving them, but as the gatekeepers between them and the future they want?

You know that situation where you spot something fascinating in the sky or out of a window, but the person standing next to you just can’t see it? What do you do? Well, usually, you step to the side and let the other person stand where you were and then guide them to what you saw… See where I’m going with this?

From where I’m standing, Maths is one of the closest things we have to magic, so by doing talks, and writing, and sharing, I step to the side and let people stand in my spot, but I don’t stop there. I guide them to what I saw; which rocks to turn over and which rabbit holes to go down. Then hopefully, when its time to step back into their real lives, they take some of the mathematical magic they found with them . If I can do that, then the effort is infinitely worth it.

1. Can you tell I like Alice in Wonderland? ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴

2. It’s not bad English if Lewis Carol did it first. ↩︎

3. I do have some satisfaction at having effectively written ‘Vanessa woz here’ on the windows of the Mathematics department but that’s neither here nor there :) ↩︎