Dr Lindy Orthia

Dr Lindy Orthia SFHEA, BSc (Hons), GCertHist, PhD, is a researcher currently affiliated with the Australian National University School of Sociology and non-profit National Seniors Australia. She lives and works in Canberra (Kambri) on country cared for by Ngunnawal and Ngambri people since time immemorial.

Professional Research
Lindy has published over 40 peer reviewed papers and chapters and in 2021 is editing her third book (see Publication list).

Between 2007 and early 2021 she worked at the Australian National University Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, first as tutor and research assistant and ultimately attaining Senior Lecturer status in 2015. In this role she published extensively within the discipline of science communication.

In 2021 she was granted an Honorary Senior Lecturer position at the ANU School of Sociology, through which she is continuing her research program. Most of her current projects focus on questions of equity, diversity and inclusion in science communication.

In 2021 she also commenced a Research Officer job at non-profit National Seniors Australia, researching issues that affect older Australians and older Australians’ thoughts and feelings about them (see reports section of Publication list).

Education and Research as a Student
Lindy first studied science as a mature aged student at La Trobe University, enrolling in 1998 and graduating as the top student in the La Trobe Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering in 2001. She moved to Canberra in 2002 to undertake honours studies in plant systematics, through the Australian National University (ANU) but based at the Australian National Herbarium at the CSIRO. She won the ANU University Medal for her honours thesis (see Pultenaea and Mirbelieae related journal and conference papers 2003-09 in Publication list). She commenced a PhD in plant systematics in 2004 but found she was more interested in the history of ideas in science and social discourses of science than in the nitty gritty of scientific analysis, so transferred her PhD to science communication in 2005. After a few false starts getting used to the new discipline, Lindy completed her PhD thesis in late 2009 on the topic ‘Doctor Who and the Democratisation of Science’, and was awarded her doctorate in 2010 (see Doctor Who related journal and conference papers and books in Publication list). She completed a Graduate Certificate in History in 2015 (see history related works in Publication list).

Teaching
Lindy tutored science communication courses from 2007, lectured and convened courses from 2010, and supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate research projects while working as a science communication academic up until 2021. In 2009 the excellence of her teaching was recognised when she won the inaugural ResearchFest Award for Excellence in Tutoring or Demonstrating, and in 2012 she won the Colleges of Science Award for Teaching Excellence. She used most of her $5000 prize money for the latter to establish prizes for undergraduate science communication students. In 2013 Lindy won a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and was awarded an ANU Commendation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in recognition of her Colleges of Science teaching award. In 2014 she was recognised as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2020 she was awarded the ANU College of Science Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Education for Programs that Enhance Learning as part of a team, her fifth teaching award. She has also published peer-reviewed works about teaching and education (see Publication list).

Activist history
Before enrolling in a BSc, Lindy spent the first ten years of her adult life as a community activist, working on diverse social justice and environmental campaigns, including the queer pride/sexuality awareness movement that was prominent throughout the 1990s, campaigns for First Nations self determination including the Jabiluka campaign which also took a stand against uranium mining in Kakadu National Park, campaigns for student income support (Austudy) and against voluntary student unionism, and campaigning against violence against women. Once she commenced studies in science, Lindy worked on the Barmah-Millewa Campaign as ecological researcher (see reports section of Publication list). The campaign brought together Friends of the Earth Melbourne with the Yorta Yorta Nation to lobby for the Barmah-Millewa forest to be managed by Yorta Yorta traditional owners and conserved as a national park. The campaign achieved its final success after a decade long fight.