Vicki is an environmental social scientist with research interests in science communication and citizen science. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in environmental and sustainability education at Southern Cross University. She has over 20 years’ experience studying social perspectives in environmental impact and management issues. In late 2017, Vicki will be joining the team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to continue her research on citizen science.

Connect with Vicki:
Dr Victoria Y. Martin
Southern Cross University
Email

How does your research contribute to Seeing Science Differently?
Citizen science enables dialogue between scientists and the public, and provides opportunities for both the volunteers and scientists to learn something from each other. Overall, I think this is a great outcome for the relationship between science and society. Nevertheless, I am concerned there are some high expectations that citizen science is some sort of panacea for the current ‘crisis’ in public science engagement. Governments here in Australia and across the globe are providing increasing support for citizen science, which I do believe is a great thing overall. However, given the results of my study, I would like for these decision-makers to see citizen science differently by looking at the evidence of likely impact, and consider more carefully how they might encourage the use of citizen science in their public engagement strategies.