19 June 2017
Victoria Square in Belfast will be transformed into a science classroom with a twist on Saturday 24 June when Northern Ireland hosts its second Soapbox Science event, organised by Queen’s academics. The first, held two years ago in 2015, attracted over 2,500 passers-by.
Twelve female scientists from around the UK and Ireland – including nine from Queen’s – will be demonstrating their work to the public in fun and unusual ways at the Victoria Square shopping mall in Belfast between 2pm and 5pm.
Supported by L'Oréal, Soapbox Science is based on the idea of Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park and aims to promote women working in the field of STEMM (science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics) across the UK and Ireland.
The event seeks to raise the profile, and challenge the public’s view, of women in science and to give people the chance to hear what fascinates female scientists and why they think they have the most fantastic job in the world!
The leader of the Belfast organising team, Dr Geetha Srinivasan from Queen’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, said: “Soapbox Science is a novel platform for promoting women scientists and the work they do. The whole idea is about giving anyone the opportunity to enjoy, learn from, heckle, question, probe, interact with and be inspired by our leading scientists.
“Members of the public will have the chance to do some simple experiments – on big data analytics to mental well-being. This year our speakers are from a wide spectrum of the STEMM area from academia, healthcare and politics.”
Among the topics up for discussion this year are: Can science fix broken emotions? How science can help politicians do their job and the tiny world of nanomaterials.
Soapbox Science involves no facilitators or PowerPoint slide presentations just passionate women in science eager to amaze people with their latest discoveries, and to answer the science questions that members of the public – young and not so young – have been longing to ask.
For a flavour of what the day is all about click here for a video of Soapbox Science 2015.
Media inquiries to Jemma Greenlees at Queen’s University Communications Office, tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3087.
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