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In the next instalment of our highlight series for our 10 year anniversary, we had a chat to Luke Wiley, who volunteered as our Perth & Sydney Festival Operations Officer for the 2024 festival!
Luke Wiley
Perth & Sydney Festival Operations Officer
What do you do for Pint of Science?
I'm the festival officer for Perth and Sydney. In this role, I work as the link between the national operations team and the city coordinators and help facilitate the delivery of the festival. I act as the main point of contact for the city coordinators and pass on relevant information that comes from national operations! For example, collating any speaker and volunteer expressions of interest submitted through the Pint of Science website.
What does success look like in your Pint of Science Role?
To make the city coordinators feel well supported, and to ensure that they have everything in place in the backend so they can meet their deadlines. This year I worked with two great City Coordinators, Ellery and Alanah, who have done a great job in their respective cities. It's really ensuring we have good communication in the phases in the lead-up to the festival to ensure all goes smoothly on the night.
Why PoS over other volunteer organisations?
I really enjoy working in science research and wanted to become part of an organisation that promoted science throughout the community. I can achieve this through PoS, but also has the advantage of being a distinct space from my day job meaning I can meet new and interesting people and gain experience of different organisational structures and experience management and delivery of a national project!
What do you do as a day job?
I'm an academic researcher based at Murdoch University, working in biomedical sciences. My research is primarily focused on understanding the reasons behind why people may be at risk of developing dementias such as Alzheimer's disease, and investigating possible links between our genetics, environment and lifestyle - currently, I'm a mid-career research fellow Funded by Dementia Australia and the Royce Simmons Foundation.
In three "dot points", describe yourself?
- Scientist,
- dad to 2 kids,
- and sports!
Want to volunteer for your local city? Fill out our EOI today!