This week we had such a wonderful time speaking with Laura Bibiana Ospina-Rozo, who joined us all the way from her home in Columbia. Laura is a scientist who finds joy in tackling research questions in the field of biophotonics: where light and living matter interact. She completed her undergraduate and masters degrees at the University of Los Andes in Colombia and her PhD in 2022 investigating beetle colours at the University of Melbourne. As a postdoc at the Stuart-Fox lab at the University of Melbourne, she analyzes biological samples combining microscopy and colour-measuring techniques, and spends most of her time talking to people from different disciplines to interpret the results together. Her work has taught her the importance of communicating science in an engaging and efficient way, as well as listening to diverse perspectives around common questions. That is why she eagerly participates in science communication competitions such as the 3MT competition and the Big Science Pitch and also likes being part of the diversity and inclusion committees at the University of Melbourne.

You can follow Laura and learn more about her work here:

https://twitter.com/laubibianapina

https://www.instagram.com/lau.b.pina/

https://biosciences.unimelb.edu.au/about/news-and-events/hbos/humans-of-biosciences-laura-ospina-rozo (the article we referred to at the start of the episode)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhC5auSY1d4 (an intro to Laura’s Big Science Pitch)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYSU5-qGb0 The Big Science Pitch 2023

Laura also makes all her code public in https://github.com/lospinarozo

Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/cjv8