Change the world

05/07/2022

Reasons to be Proud - #R2bP: BSc Honours in Botany student Marishka Govender, has been selected as one of 20 young scientists to attend a Science Communication conference in Germany this July.

Selected by Science Birds, Marishka will attend the European Summer School on Science Communication (ES3C) in Frankfurt in July 2022, at the Helmholtz Forschungsakademie Hessen für Fair (the Helmholtz Research Academy in Hessen for Fair), which, along with Science Birds and the ES3C, is partnered by Goethe Universität - University of Frankfurt.

DAAD (The German Academic Exchange Service) has funded the entirety of her travel and accommodation expenses in the form of a scholarship, an opportunity made possible by DAAD to the 20 successful non-German (i.e. International) students.

The goal of this programme is to empower young scientists to diversify the way they do and communicate science. Diversity, accessibility and inclusivity should be at the core of all scientific communities. This includes the presence and empowerment of #WomenInSTEM, a cause that has solidified her social purpose and responsibility as a young scientist woman woman in STEM.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for science to make its voice heard. In times of so-called “alternative facts “, scientific results are sometimes even deliberately ignored or manipulated to gain advantages.

In the future, this social debate will become increasingly stronger and probably also more aggressive.

Many researchers are consciously withdrawing more and more from this discussion. There are certainly many reasons for this, but it ultimately leads to the debate being conducted less and less with empirically verifiable data and more emotionally charged, irrational and interest-driven in the long term.

The withdrawal of scientists from the discourse is largely due to a lack of time, knowledge, and structures.

The European summer school brings together young scientists to give them a better idea on how to communicate their science.

Contact information
Science Marketing
Tel: 041 504 4853
science.marketing@mandela.ac.za