Chair | Emma Yhnell (UK), Cardiff University, United Kingdom, FENS Communication Committee member.
Dr Emma Yhnell is an award-winning science communicator and senior lecturer based at Cardiff University. She has served on the FENS Communications Committee since 2020 and has built a reputation for her ability to untangle the academically technical and translate it into entertaining, relevant and accessible content. As a first generation academic, she sees it as her aim to change the typical image of academia, to make science more open, honest, equitable and fun. Since 2019 Emma has served as elected Equity, Diversity and Inclusion member for the British Neuroscience Association. She is a writer and regular contributor to radio and television as well as a commentator for the Science Media Centre and is passionate about sharing her knowledge and changing the minds of people who nervously think ‘science isn’t for me.’
Speaker | Rui Rodrigues (FR), Neurocentre Magendie, Bordeaux, France
Rui Rodrigues is an early career researcher with a genuine passion for neuroscience and science communication. He earned his PhD from the University of Lisbon (PT), studying how cannabinoids and neurotrophic factors regulate adult neural stem cells, and he is currently moving to Neurocentre Magendie, Bordeaux as a postdoctoral fellow. As a major advocate for public engagement, Dr Rodrigues is the founder and manager of “Fala-me Neuro”, a Portuguese communication project that aims at promoting neuroscience literacy and interest in an accessible and democratized manner. His commitment to science outreach and self-development has earned him several awards and prizes that ignited his projects and professional training, including first prize at the Science Communication Workshop at FENS Regional Meeting 2021 and FENS/Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week 2022 grant. Dr Rodrigues loves doing science, but he also loves making it more familiar and inclusive to the public.
Speaker | Laura Llobet Reixach (ES), Eduxarxa SCCL, Barcelona, Spain
Laura Llobet holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Biology, an MSc in Systems Biology and a Postgraduate Degree in Science Communication. She started her scientific career in a Bioinformatics lab, but after a few years, she moved into Science communication. Working as an educator at a Science museum gave her a lot of experience and knowledge about spreading scientific content to a wide range of audiences. She applies all her expertise at Eduxarxa, a cooperative enterprise that designs, writes and produces educational material for different institutions: research centres, schools, museums, companies, etc. Eduxarxa aims to convert the communication purpose of an institution into engaging activities for children, with all materials teachers need to deliver appropriately. Laura collaborated with the Neuroscience Institute (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (INc-UAB)) to develop the project “Connections. Explore yourself from the bottom to the top” (Connexions. Explora’t de cap a peus) for primary schools. This project was funded by FENS-Dana Brain Awareness Week 2022 grants and aims to explain how the nervous system works in a didactic and fun way.
Speaker | Anne Rahbek-Damm (DK), Senior communication officer, Copenhagen, Denmark
Anne Rahbek-Damm holds an M.A. in communication and has worked in science communication for the last 15 years. She has also been the outreach programme coordinator at The Biotech Research & Innovation Centre, University of Copenhagen (DK), since 2013. She received the FENS/Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week 2022 grant for the project “Brain-storm: a scientific journey.” She has a passion for storytelling.