Biography:

Dr Simon Torok works for CSIRO in communication at the Marine and Atmospheric Research division in Aspendale. This involves managing a team of communicators to raise awareness of the climate change research and other marine and atmospheric work of around 800 staff and others in the Division, and coordinating communication across the climate science, adaptation, and mitigation areas of CSIRO. Simon has a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication from the Australian National University, and completed a PhD in climate change science at the University of Melbourne’s School of Earth Sciences, examining Australia’s historical temperature record.

In Australia he has worked as editor of CSIRO’s magazines, The Helix for 10-14 year-olds and Scientriffic for 7-10 year-olds, and performed with the Questacon Science Circus doing science shows for young people around Australia, and in England he has worked as a climate change communicator at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Simon has had numerous appearances on television and radio, and has published many newspaper, magazine and scientific journal articles. He has co-authored with Paul Holper 13 popular books on science and climate change, published by ABC Books, CSIRO Publishing, and Pan Macmillan, several of which have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Hungarian.

Presentations:

• Hot air or hot action: How communication can help translate research into action in areas such as climate change