People: Andy Russell
- Current role:
- Early career researcher
- Institution:
- University of Manchester
- Discipline:
- Natural environment
What motivated you to engage the public in your work?
It all happened by accident really. I was asked to organise a public lecture a few years ago and that went really well. I enjoyed meeting new people and discussing interesting ideas outside my specific research area. Since then loads of other opportunities have come up and they've all been fun and relevant to developing transferable skills. I wish someone had told me about how interesting and motivating these activities can be before I stumbled upon them!
Describe the public engagement activity you have done.
My public engagement activities started by organising and giving public lectures but I've moved on to do more interactive events. I have contributed to many events at science festivals, the highlight of which was an interactive project and workshop I organised at the Manchester Science Festival in 2009. I've also been involved with lots of events and given talks in schools, including a 10-week Researchers in Residence placement that was a great experience. I've engaged with the media on several occasions, written articles for general consumption and I blog and tweet on weather and climate issues.
What are your top three tips for other researchers?
1. Play to your strengths - there are lots of ways to engage the public so find something that you'll do well.
2. Don't be afraid to admit that you don't know something - research is all about the things we don't know so not knowing the answer to a tricky question is fine.
3. Make sure you put aside enough time to do the activity and to plan it properly.
What are your top three resources to support your engagement work?
1. Professional societies (in my case the Royal Meteorological Society).
2. The Beacons for Public Engagement
3. Enthusiastic colleagues (so talk about your PE activities at work!)
What would you say to encourage another researcher to engage with the public?
Public engagement can be a nice way to increase the impact of your research. As long you're doing all the other stuff right, public engagement can help you stand out from the crowd.
