This is a careers forum with purpose. Each term, Science Gallery Melbourne will introduce your students to inspiring people who work to solve some of our most pressing global and local challenges that we as a community face.

Students will hear not only about career journeys and industry connections, but how these professionals work across science, technology, engineering, arts and maths and use a range of transferable skills in the ways they work to make a difference in the world.

In the first forum of 2023, we will focus on transdisciplinary STEAM careers relating to social change.

Inspired by the BREAK THE BINARIES exhibition, this forum will celebrate those in our society who are breaking the mold and making our local and global communities a better place for all.

Livestream

How to start the live stream

Refresh page and press play to start event. Please ensure volume is up high (bottom right blue bars). Should your stream appear blurry, you may increase and adjust the quality by navigating to the cogwheel on the bottom right of the video window, and select 720p or higher.

If you experience any technical difficulties, please chat to us via the box on the bottom right of this page. Otherwise, you may choose to watch the event via the alternative link here.

Ask the panel

Post any questions and comments for our panellists in the Q&A section and they will be answered by the speakers.

Panellists

Ash Hem

Ash Hem is a visual artist, peer worker and facilitator. In all these things they pull from their lived experiences to create things and support others. This includes their queerness, gender, culture, disability and all other bits of their life. They continue to work across the mental health, disability, LGBTQIA+, migrant and refugee, youth, arts and advocacy fields.

Dr Kyle Turner

Dr Kyle Turner is from Dubbo in rural New South Wales, Australia, his mother's Wiradjuri country. Kyle founded Pearlii in 2019, a for-profit social enterprise that uses world-first AI technology to scan your teeth for common dental problems. Pearlii’s mission to improve oral health globally by bringing free dental check-ups and free oral health education to the world. Prior to Pearlii, Kyle was a Public Health lecturer at the University of Melbourne, which followed his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Oxford. Kyle has also published widely on the burden of preventable chronic diseases.

Lisy Kane

Lisy Kane is a videogames producer and co-founder of Girl Geek Academy. She is currently heading up production initiatives for Kepler Interactive, a new global co-owned publisher as well as advisor and producer for the Kowloon Nights games fund. Previous to this she formed her production career at League of Geeks, a Melbourne independent games studio with her last role being Production Director which saw her shaping the production department and broader team.

Emcee: Jess Vovers

Jess Vovers is a radically hopeful potter, maker, secret poet, and doctor of biochemical engineering. Terrified by the realities of climate change, Jess focused their doctoral research on bio-based alternatives to fossil fuel solvents in the extraction of pharmaceuticals from plant matter. Beyond research, Jess is a scifi-fantasy dork nerd who is passionate about diversity and creativity in STEM. They seek to explore the plurality of queer, neurodiverse, regenerative futures and how we can enmesh art and science to cultivate them. Jess is also a hair model, avid meditator, tutor, and experienced speaker. They are driven by curiosity, awe and connection, and can often be found settling in with clay in soft coloured lighting, or wandering in the bush near the Birrarung with a thermos of tea searching for mushrooms and fluid dynamic patterns.

Caitlin Little

Caitlin Little has worked as a Senior Accountant at Fordham Business Advisors for three years after completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne in 2018. Now a qualified Chartered Accountant, Caitlin worked on secondment for a not-for-profit Aboriginal Corporation in North-West WA for six weeks.

Guest Artist: Lauri Pavlovich

Lauri Pavlovich is an 18 year old multi-media creative whose works aim to provide insight and representation of their lived experiences. Their autism, ADHD and queerness impact their themes and approach to creating. Outside of their own artistic practice they work as a peer support worker and program facilitator. Their passion for their work fuels their creativity across mediums, with a focus on the joy of making over the refinement of the final piece.

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We pay respect to Elders past and present of the Kulin Nation, and acknowledge First Nations people as our first artists and scientists.
Science Gallery Melbourne is part of the Global Science Gallery Network pioneered by Trinity College Dublin