Post Category → Education

Reflections on 6 years at ANU

I’ve chosen to finish up at The Australian National University this week. Some, incomplete, reflections on the six years there:

  • The role of open data and models has never been more crucial. My code is https://github.com/bjornsturmberg and I recently got permission to share 2 household data sets https://zenodo.org/records/14885589
  • I still chuckle at getting a Bluey into the Quarterly Essay in my response to Saul Griffiths essay. I’m all for electrification but the emphasis shouldn’t be placed on numbers and machines, for as Chilli Healer says “if there’s no trust, none of this [the world] is possible . . . No libraries, no roads, no power lines.” https://bjornsturmberg.com/response-to-saul-griffiths-the-wires-that-bind/
  • I had never expected to write a kids book. Nor would I have imagined how Amy’s Balancing Act would take me to Parliament (as Craig Reucassel says, it’s “a great book to teach young children and old politicians about clean energy”), Australia’s largest music festival, and lots of schools (well that last part was predictable). I’ll always be endebted to those who supported the kickstarter campaign and to Cool.org for leveraging the story into teaching resources that have reached over 45,000 kids. https://bjornsturmberg.com/amys-balancing-act/ (there are only 2 boxes of the first edition left…)
  • I remain sceptical that giving something the prefix ‘community’ makes it deliver community benefit. https://bjornsturmberg.com/community-batteries-a-discussion-paper/ 
  • That an Australian electric vehicle fleet would have 5 times the energy storage capacity of Snowy 2.0 boggles my mind (so I refer to the calculation https://reneweconomy.com.au/are-19-million-electric-vehicle-batteries-equal-to-five-snowy-2-0s-61400/). 
  • The contribution of the REVS project in driving V2G from concept to commercial proposition in Australia is something I – and everyone in the consortium – will always be proud of. https://bjornsturmberg.com/category/transport/vehicle-to-grid/
  • The passion, talent, energy and compasionate leadership of students is radical. They’re truly our hope for the future. It’s been an honour to be the academic champion of the ANU solar for 5 years (3 team iterations, 2 car designs, builds and 1 world solar challenge – the next one being but weeks away, go team!)
  • Transdisciplinarity is hard to spell, harder to enact, and harder still to get funded. Hats off to the new McCusker Institute, I’m sad to not see out my Fellowship year.
  • The totally equitable parental leave policy is outstanding, but ought to be the norm. I have been invaluably enriched by the good and the bad times during the time I took (and take) to do the bestest, hardest job. Annabel Crabb’s Men at Work essay is still my go to https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2019/09/men-at-work
  • Contributing to growing a team from 3 to over 30 staff was a blast. It’s cliche and true that nothing is more influential than who you work with, which holds for partners as well as staff and students. I’ve been lucky to have this reinforced through positive examples from wonderful people.
  • Shifting from organisational growth to sustainability is (surprisingly) tricky. Strategy and leadership structures have to evolve markedly.
  • There is so much more to do to align decarbonisation (and broader sustainability) with social justice. This is my best attempt to contribute https://bjornsturmberg.com/presentation-watt-price-equity/, which is further developed in an upcoming Perspective article.

Discussion with the ACT Chief Minister

I had the pleasure of discussing all things energy transition with the ACT Chief Minister late last year in my role as ACT Emerging Scientist of the Year.

His description below… https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewbarrmla_dr-bjorn-sturmberg-has-been-awarded-the-2024-activity-7274676995525894145-duD4

“Dr Bjorn Sturmberg has been awarded the 2024 ACT Emerging Scientist of the Year Award for his work on clean energy technology.

The Award recognises the achievements of an emerging scientist and celebrates excellence in scientific research and innovation here in the ACT.

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EnergiZines: 43 personal interpretations of the energy transition

Last year I had the pleasure of working with the creative team of Engaged ANU (The Australian National University), Brad Riley and the inspiring Tristan Schultz on a pretty out there engagement that we called “EnergiZine – Nurturing Energy Transitions”. We’ve just uploaded the Zines created in these workshops for all to read and be inspired by https://dev.mtchl.net/energizine/viewer/

They represent 43 members of the public’s personal takes on the energy transition story, where it comes from and where it should lead to.

This short video gives a sense of what the evenings were like https://vimeo.com/847972505

Research on effects of Amy’s Balancing Act story

In collaboration with Graham Walker of the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science I am conducting research on how Amy’s Balancing Act influences readers’ conception of the electricity system and the transition to clean energy.

Below are a copy of the worksheets being utilised for this (one for young persons the second for adults) and the accompanying participant information sheets. This research is conducted under ANU Ethics Protocol 2023/286.

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Video insight into the EnergiZine experiences

This has been one of the most engaging – and out there – projects I’ve ever had been involved in. It was an absolute privelidge to work with Brad Riley and collaborators in the First Nations Clean Energy Network on the content, Mitchell Whitelaw and Dave Fanner from the Engaged ANU on the creative engagement, and Tristan Schultz from Relative Creative who designed the richly layered absurdist mnemonic experience.

The created Zines can be viewed here.

My speech from the events:

Let me add my respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri custodians of the beautiful and unceded land on which we’re gathered this evening and to all First Nations people who have cared for country since time immemorial.

The theme of tonight is wellness.

Everything you’ll be exposed to and will have to deliberate on and choose between effects your wellness and the wellness of your communities and the earth.

We don’t ever think or talk about our role at the ANU in terms of wellness, but really everything we do is in service of this goal: the wellness of individuals, communities, and the planet.

Now not everything you’ll find on these tables will assist with wellness. After all, a key part of wellness is avoiding that which makes you unwell: be that stress, junk food, pollution, etc.

And you can’t always trust what you read in wellness magazines and labels, you’ve got to critically investigate to uncover the complex interrelations and impacts of things.

This too is a vital part of our job at the ANU – to uncover and analyse that which makes people and places unwell. So keep an eye out for this tonight.

And with that, I wish you luck in nurturing, navigating, and crafting your wellness energy transition. I hope it’s as stimulating and engaging to complete as it’s been to create.

Woodford Folk Festival 2022-23

I had a wonderful time at the Woodford Folk Festival over the summer. I can now confirm that it’s no less fun with a toddler than childless! So much excitement and good vibes all around.

I gave an hour long presentation on “Watt’s in store for the energy system?” in the main festival, with special guest Prof Ian Lowe, as well as spending an hour doing some readings of Amy’s Balancing Act in the children’s festival. Both were very fun and engaging with the switched on crowds.

My slides for the adult presentation are below, together with a few pics – more on instagram

202212-Sturmberg-WoodfordDownload

Amy launched in the Parliament of Australia

Amy’s story has struck such a chord with political moment that Alicia Payne MP, the member for Canberra, hosted the national launch of Amy’s Balancing Act in Federal Parliament.

The event included an enthusiastic speech from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Hon Chris Bowen, as well as an impressive upside-down reading of the book by Nobel laureate Prof Brian Schmidt AC.

Below are some of the first news articles that give more of the details.

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Young ANU scientists make their mark with Tall Poppy honours

Four outstanding early career researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) who are forging new ground in fields spanning tissue engineering to how we experience and communicate emotions have been recognised with ACT Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. 

Dr Kiara Bruggeman, Dr Joshua Chu-Tan, Dr Bjorn Sturmberg and Dr Amy Dawel have been honoured for pushing scientific boundaries and fostering an appreciation for the sciences by communicating their work to the public.  

The awards are considered an early indicator of Australia’s future scientific leaders. They highlight the excellent work of young scientists who have made significant contributions to their respective fields of science that will benefit Australia and the world.  

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