Sex, humility, the power of the sun, travelling to outer space, poverty, and more sex – just some of the topics to be covered at the 2nd UNSW UNSOMNIA event on Friday.
Liza Cassidy
Media Office
0429 390 737
l.cassidy@unsw.edu.au
Sex, humility, the power of the sun, travelling to outer space, travelling to inner space, poverty, refugees and more sex – these are just some of the topics to be covered at the 2nd UNSW UNSOMNIA event on Friday, 1 December.
After last year's major success, the UNSOMNIA 2.017 organisers hope to jolt us out of our complacency again by bringing together a group of talented and engaging UNSW researchers to ask the question: "What needs to change?"
Professor Robert Brooks, Academic lead of the Grand Challenges program and curator for the UNSOMNIA events, said the main challenge of this year’s free event was narrowing down the speakers to just 10.
"Following last year’s success we had an avalanche of UNSW experts wanting to participate and showcase their exciting work. It’s been quite awe inspiring to see the range of experience, expertise and truly fascinating research underway around UNSW, with over 50 researchers and experts applying to present this year," he said.
"It took literally weeks to narrow those entries down to the final 10."
The 10 speakers come from faculties across UNSW including Built Environment, Law, Engineering, Arts & Social Sciences and Medicine, and will present their unique take on a range of complex issues impacting our modern societies.
Evolutionary social psychologist Dr Khandis Blake said she was looking forward to airing her ideas on the nurture versus nature debate, combining biology, psychology and feminism to better understand the issues at hand.
"I am hoping that I can provide the audience with some entertaining insights into how we perceive the differences between the sexes through nurture vs nature, and how we might go about reconciling these."
Other presenters for UNSOMNIA 2.017 include:
Solange Cunin, a recent UNSW student and now CEO of Cuberider, who is transforming STEM education by giving students access to space.Her initiative helps school students launch their own experiments to the International Space Station and she is asking the question: What do we need to change to allow more students to reach for the stars?
For 30 of the last 34 years, Scientia Professor Martin Green’s research group has held the world record for silicon solar cell efficiency. A world-leading photovoltaics researcher, he is been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of science’s highest honours. Green asks what needs to change in this field to make our policy makers less pessimistic about the prospects of renewable energy
Exploring the Grand Challenges that face humanity and the urgent questions that face us as Australians, this thought-provoking evening of free talks will tackle everything from sex to civility.
What: UNSOMNIA 2.017 – “What needs to change”
When: 5.30pm, Friday 1 December 2017
Where: Leighton Hall, John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW, Kensington
Details: Event is free, details here
UNSOMNIA is collaboration between UNSW’s Grand Challenges Program and the brand-new Centre for Ideas, providing a distinctive homegrown but globally-oriented balance of expertise and entertainment to promote the work of UNSW academic staff and students.