Dr Linden Ashcroft awarded AMOS Science Outreach Award

The 2020 AMOS Science Outreach Award has been awarded to Dr Linden Ashcroft of Melbourne University. She has used her expertise in historical and future climate change to educate the broader public, through dozens of TV, radio and newspaper interviews. This includes her extensive radio work with the Einstein A-go-go program on 3RRR where she has a semi-regular slot explaining and discussing recent STEM stories to the broader public.

The AMOS Science Outreach Award recognises AMOS outreach ambassadors, who inspire other AMOS members to undertake science engagement activities, and additionally recognizes those who engage with the public, politicians, schools, businesses and communities, to educate and inform those groups on topics associated with AMOS themes.

Linden’s outreach has helped influence public opinion on past and future climate change through educating people around these topics. Linden’s clear and easy-to-understand article “Letter to a weather station” was published in a collection of the best Australian science writing of 2019. In early 2019, Linden was recognized by Science and Technology Australia as a Superstar of STEM, a program established to create a critical mass of outstanding Australian female scientists and technologists as role models for young women and girls.

Linden’s effective communication and passion for her research has energised efforts to harness the power of citizen scientists in helping to transcribe old weather records. This vital work that Linden has pioneered allows climate scientists to extend the record of Australian meteorological observations back well into the 19th century.