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The free event on South King Street will host 12 women scientists, who are investigating a range of topics such as neuroscience and using carbon dioxide to make antibiotics.
Soapbox Science Dublin is returning to the city streets this Saturday (17 June), with a line-up of leading women scientists.
The family-friendly event will have each scientist give a 15-minute talk on their current research. The scientists are investigating a diverse range of topics such as biodiversity, drug design, computational logic and the climate crisis.
These speakers will be on South King Street between 11am and 2pm on Saturday, giving people a chance to learn more about their research in areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.
The Dublin event is one of 34 Soapbox Science events taking place across the world, which are designed to promote women and non-binary scientists. 2021 saw the Dublin event go virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Just a little carbon dioxide update to our poster 😉😁
You can know all about it on Saturday! See you in King st, from 11am to 2 pm pic.twitter.com/Zl5wiSPBys
— Soapbox Science Ireland (@SoapboxSciIRL) June 12, 2023
The 12 scientists hail from University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU), Maynooth University and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
One of the planned speakers is Dr Cassandra Dinius from Maynooth University, who will deliver a talk on ‘Maintaining ageing brains with memory and movement’.
Dinius said the event will be a platform for her to share her “excitement about cognitive neuroscience and demonstrate how it applies to everyday life”.
“As the first person in my family to go to university, I am an advocate for explaining how our work as scientists impacts the real world,” Dinius said.
“Using neuropsychological assessments and fMRI, we are learning what activities are best for different groups of older people, including those in the community, those living with dementias and older adults in custody.”
Another scientist who will be discussing her research is PhD researcher Rosa Fernandez Pison from UCD, who provided some teaser details about her talk called ‘Carbon Dioxide-Based Drugs: Unlocking the Potential of a Climate Villain’.
“Many people misunderstand the role of chemistry and reasonably have an aversion towards it, ignoring that chemicals are the building blocks of life,” Fernandez Pison said. “At Soapbox Science Dublin 2023 I will provide a more holistic view of the potential of this natural science.
“My talk focuses on how we can turn the accumulation of carbon dioxide into an opportunity by using this gas for the synthesis of antibiotics.”
The event is supported by UCD and is being organised this year by a team of scientists from the DAFM, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and UCD.
The full list of participating scientists is below:
Negin Zarbakhsh, UCD
‘Crowdsourced Street-Level Imagery for Place Recognition in Cities’
Dr Virginia Morera-Pujol, UCD
‘Deer in Ireland: why, where, and how many?’
Lais Barbosa Latorraca MSc, UCD
‘Fertility: it is all about the Egg’
Mariluz del Pino-de Elias, UCD
‘The NeverEnding Story of Plant Biostimulants’
Iuliia (Yulia) Promskaia, UCD
‘“Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are”: grouping people, countries and other things with Statistics’
Celine G Erkey, UCD
‘Clicking in a Cure – Designing Powerful Remedies with Science’
Dr Kate Pleace, DCU
‘Why Premature Ovarian Insufficiency is different to menopause?’
Dr Cassandra Dinius, Maynooth University
‘Maintaining ageing brains with memory and movement’
Luz Alejandra Magre MSc, DCU,
‘Think like a computer: Making decisions with logic gates’
Rosa Fernandez Pison, UCD
‘Carbon Dioxide-Based Drugs: Unlocking the Potential of a Climate Villain’
Dr Anna Tiley, DAFM
‘Green Forensics: A Day in the Life of a Plant Doctor’
Cristina Abascal Ruiz, UCD
‘Monoclonal antibodies, a Chinese hamster and a flamenco singer! An imaginative approach to antibody glycoengineering’
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