Looking for summer stories?

Summer is here and that means heatwaves, sand and surf, overeating, family fracas and party pressures. UNSW has experts available for comment on the 10 most likely stories to pop up this holiday season.

How to spot a rip and stay safe in the surf Professor Rob Brander from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, has found rips kill more people than shark attacks and natural disasters | 0401 420 962

Heatwaves More than 100 heat-related records have been broken in Australia over the past year – Dr Sarah Perkins from the Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW is an expert on Australian climate extremes | 0400 933 793

Extreme weather and climate change Climate Change Research Centre media contact, Alvin Stone | 0418 617 366

Heating cities

• UNSW Built Environment’s Matthias Irger employs airborne remote sensing across the Sydney metro area to examine the effect of vegetation, building density and road surfaces on outdoor urban temperatures | 0415 305 630
• Jonathan Fox is a PhD candidate with UNSW Built Environment who uses infrared cameras and a hand-held weather station to measure how our cities heat up when temperatures rise | 0408 022 788.

Loneliness Dr Lisa Williams fom UNSW’s School of Psychology says individuals can be lonely even when around a lot of people. The consequences of lonlieness are dire and it’s not just an issue for the elderly | 0434 089 442

Mental health over the festive season

• UNSW Conjoint Professor and child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr Josephine Anderson, Black Dog Institute. Media contact Gayle McNaught | 0401 625 905
• UNSW senior lecturer and clinical psychologist, Dr Fiona Shand, Black Dog Institute. Media contact Gayle McNaught | 0401 625 905

Drug use during the party season

• Director of UNSW’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) Professor Michael Farrell is a member of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
• Associate Professor Anthony Shakeshaft specialises in substance misuse and harms at NDARC.
• Professor Alison Ritter is an internationally recognised specialist in illicit drug policy at NDARC. Media contact Marion Downey | 0401 713 850

Road Safety 

Associate Professor Teresa Senserrick | 0437 368 798

Boosting vaccination rates From January 2016, the Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement and child care assistance will not be paid to parents who fail to comply with immunisation requirements and ‘conscientious objections’ will no longer be a valid exemption category. Raina Macintyre, Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology has written extensively on how to boost vaccination rates. Read more here | 0410 651 612

Families and time pressure Director of UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre, Professor Lyn Craig, specialises in how families spend their time. Her recent research compares Australian, Korean and Italian families and how rushed they feel, with Australia rating the highest in terms of time pressure  | 0414 366 733

Eating well and cruelty-free this Christmas

• Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan, Social Policy lecturer and animal rights proponent in UNSW Arts and Social Sciences | 0404 277 469 (available until 3 Jan)
• Professor Margaret Morris from the School of Medical Sciences looks into the effects of junk food on the brain and self-regulation | 0404 790 699
• Associate Professor Lenny Vartanian, regulation of food intake | 0403 671 767

UNSW has experts available to comment on how to manage the ‘season of overindulgence’ (Photo: iStock).