Who's who in NMES Professional Services: The Outreach Team

Name: Joana Leitao

Title: Senior Outreach Officer

Bio: I'm Joana, a recent addition to the NMES Outreach team, having joined in March 2024. After a Bachelor's in Applied Maths and a MSc in Biomedical Engineering, I spent over a decade investigating cognitive brain function using MRI scanners (and people), first as a PhD student and then as a post-doc. Along the way, through teaching and volunteering, I discovered that I really enjoy transmitting my knowledge and skills to younger generations including children. More broadly, I would like to help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and research and society. After a short but very fulfilling experience doing public engagement with research at UCL's Department of Neuroimaging, I decided to focus on doing outreach work and bring the fun of science and STEM closer to those who don't typically have access to it. 

Bucket List: I love doing pottery! Watching clay spinning round and round on the wheel is my idea of meditation. A pottery themed trip that includes pottery workshops around Japan would thus just be pure bliss! Plus, I would be surrounded by all this delicious food!

Role in the Department: My role is to support the coordination and facilitation of outreach activities across the faculty. Apart from working on a host of exciting new programmes that the outreach team launched before my arrival, I also look forward to contributing to the expansion of the team's portfolio in the near future. In addition, I look forward to working with researchers across the faculty, particularly with the Departments of Engineering and Informatics - which will be my focus area. Together, I believe we can create amazing activities and programmes to bring young people closer to STEM and provide lots of fun for everyone involved! If you have an outreach idea that has been blossoming in the back of your mind, or more generally want to be involved but don't exactly know how, please do get in touch!

The following Outreach team profiles were originally published in October 2023. 

Name: Kathryn Boast

Title: Faculty Outreach Manager

Bio: I'm Kathryn, and I've been part of NMES for a few months now, supporting our outreach work and developing plans for the future. I'm a physicist by training, with a PhD on a dark matter search experiment, but I sidestepped into outreach and public engagement when I realised I preferred talking about science to actually doing it. I've enjoyed masterminding a range of projects, from building large-scale interactive art installations and creating the world's first quantum materials colouring book, to organising online courses for over 1,000 people and running local kids coding clubs. 

Bucket List: I love pootling about in my vintage VW campervan, and one day I hope to take it on the NC500, a 500-mile road-trip round the far north of Scotland visiting some of the most beautiful and remote corners of the Scottish coast. Wilderness, wild camping, and maybe just a little whisky!

Role in the Faculty: I lead on coordinating outreach across the faculty, from the unglamorous tasks of safegurading processes and data protection policies, to designing exciting new programmes that will bring NMES research to the next generation of scientists and engineers. Wherever you're at in your outreach journey, whether you've run programmes for years, or whether you just think it sounds like a nice thing to be involved with, drop us a line. The more the merrier!

Name: Peter Gallivan

Title: Outreach Support Manager

Bio: I'm a very new addition to the NMES team, having joined in September 2023. I have spent my career so far in outreach and education, with my first experiences gained during my time studying Zoology at The University of Sheffield. Most recently I worked as Family Programmes Manager at the Royal Institution, running a varied programme of talks, workshops and activity days. I also assisted with the Christmas Lectures, most recently being the front half of a pantomime cow! Before this, I worked at an international scout centre in Switzerland, helping young people explore the natural world and learn key life skills.

Bucket List: I love hiking and getting out into nature so would love to do some longer hikes, like the Tour de Mont Blanc, or some trekking in the Himalayas. I would also love to travel to Istanbul by train.

Role in the Department: I support and facilitate outreach across the faculty, expanding the amazing work already done and growing the impact of this work. In addition to supporting existing projects, I will be planning and delivering faculty-wide outreach programmes, aiming to highlight to young people the diverse opportunities available in STEM careers. We also plan to involve our local community more in outreach projects, showcasing the positive impact made by our faculty and the University as a whole. If you want to get involved, get in touch!