Lessons from Curiosity-Driven Physics Research

From the serendipitous discovery of X-rays in a German laboratory to the scientists trying to prove Einstein wrong about quantum mechanics (and inadvertently proving him right) to the race to split the atom: physicists have shaped innumerable aspects of how we live today. In this talk accelerator physicist and author Suzie Sheehy will share her key lessons from over 100 years of curiosity-driven experiments to understand the microscopic. Far from just talking about revolutions in understanding the cosmos Sheehy will share lessons learned by bringing physics down to Earth and putting it firmly back where it belongs in the hands of the people.

Bio: Associate Professor Suzie Sheehy is a physicist science communicator and academic whose research addresses both curiosity-driven and applied areas. She leads the accelerator physics group at the University of Melbourne developing new particle accelerators for applications in medicine. She is the current director of the Australian Collaboration for Accelerator Science (ACAS) and holds a Visiting Lectureship at the University of Oxford. She has held prestigious research fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and the Royal Society. Suzie is also an award-winning speaker author and science communicator dedicated to bringing stories of science and scientists to the wider community. Her 2018 TED talk on ‘The Case for Curiosity Driven Research’ has been viewed almost 2 million times and her acclaimed popular science book ‘The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed Our World’ has been published worldwide in 12 languages.

Host or Publisher University of Victoria