Susannah Eliott
CEO, Australian Science Media Centre
Susannah has a PhD in cell and developmental biology from Macquarie University, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and more than 16 years of practical experience in science communication with the science-media nexus as her primary focus.
She is currently CEO of the Australian Science Media Centre, an independent not for profit organisation that works with the news media to inject more evidence-based science into public discourse. Prior to this she spent more than five years in Stockholm, Sweden, as director of communications for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), an international network of scientists studying global environmental change.
In the 1990s Susannah managed the Centre for Science Communication at UTS, where she helped establish the successful Horizons of Science series of media roundtables and was involved in numerous other initiatives such as Science in the Pub and Science in the Bush.
She worked with the federal government on the State of the Environment Report (1994), the CRC for Cardiac Technology on their Education and Communications program (1993-95) and with the UTS Journalism School on a specialist course for science reporters (1997).
She sits on various committees and panels including chair of the expert working group on science and the media for the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research as part of the “Inspiring Australia” initiative. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Ethics Centre of South Australia and the judging panels for the Banksia Environmental Awards, the CRC Early Career Awards and the SA Tall Poppy Awards (2008). In February 2011 she was appointed to the position of Climate Commissioner, helping to build a greater understanding and consensus about reducing Australia’s carbon pollution and providing expert advice on climate change science and impacts.
