The University of Queensland attracts top academic minds from across the globe, but how does their genius translate to 140 characters or less?
To celebrate @UQ_News reaching 13,000 twitter followers, UQ is sharing a list of some of its most engaging academic twitter users. Send additional suggestions to news@uq.edu.au
You can follow them all by subscribing to the UQ top tweeters list.
Faculty of Science:
Go on a virtual dinosaur hunt with the School of Biological Sciences Senior Lecturer Dr Steve Salisbury’s twitter feed. The palaeontologist travels around Australia seeking new dinosaur tracks and bones, and tweets behind-the-scenes photographs from his adventures.
UQ PhD candidate and researcher Ben Allen is a prominent expert on wildlife, dingos and wild dog control. His twitter feed debates the latest control methods, the effects of dingos on local fauna and flora, and pictures from his latest research.
UQ Biochemistry Fellow Dr Benjamin Schulz tweets on research, science and life as a UQ lecturer. Follow him for a quirky take on the scientific issues of the day.
Interested in wildlife and conservation? Follow UQ Professor of Conservation Research Hugh Possingham for the latest on environmental research, at-risk areas and ways to help protect wildlife.
From the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - @HASSUQ:
Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Communication John Harrison’s twitter feed promotes the work of UQ’s latest journalism cohort and discusses the news of the day, adding expert commentary to mainstream media. He’s also a regular on ABC’s 612.
Dr Lorann Downer is passionate about politics in general, and political branding in particular. She is currently lecturing on Queensland politics in the School of Political Science and International Studies. She also researches, writes and comments on Queensland and Australian politics, and political marketing and branding.
A UQ International relations expert, Associate Professor Matt McDonald’s twitter feed discusses human rights, international conflict and political issues at home and abroad.
- @p_orchard
A Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations, Dr Phil Orchard focuses on sharing humanitarian issues via his twitter feed. He also contributes to @APR2P – the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect feed.
- @Alex_J_Bellamy
Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies Alex Bellamy is passionate about human rights and peacekeeping. Follow him for information on human security in the Asia Pacific, and society’s responsibility to protect others.
- @gman_h
Anthropology lecturer and researcher Gerhard Hoffstaedter studies religion, refugees and politics, with a special interest in Islam. He also tweets from @world101x, an account linked to the free online edX World 101 course.
Former journalist and founder of NewsCubed, Skye Doherty is a journalism academic at UQ with an interest in tech and digital journalism. She tweets on journalism, new media and emerging technology.
Acclaimed Australian poet and UQ senior lecturer Bronwyn Lea tweets on the latest in the literary world, as well as poetic insight into everyday issues.
From the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law - @uqbs:
Professor of Law Graeme Orr specialises in political law. His feed is the one to watch for expert commentary and opinion on political issues.
UQ economist Professor John Quiggin is the go-to expert on economic issues, and has a knack for putting challenging theories into common language. He also blogs at http://johnquiggin.com/
UQ Business School Senior Lecturer Tim Kastelle tweets on business, start-ups and innovative new ideas. His feed is a great curation of the best business news of the day.
From the Institute of Molecular Bioscience - @IMBatUQ:
- @JennyMartin_UQ
Crystallography Laboratory Head Professor Jenny Martin not only tweets about her own discoveries and projects, but is a passionate advocate for women in science, promoting healthy debate on sexism across the twitterverse.
- @marklcrowe
Can’t make it to a genomics conference? Want to know what all the scientists are tweeting about at meetings? Check out UQ genomics, molecular biology and bioinformatics scientist Mark Crowe’s twitter feed. He live-tweets interesting events and debates.
- @DrMaggieHardy
Dr Maggie Hardy is a scientist with both UQ’s IMB and QAAFI, and is passionate about bringing science to the public. Her work focused on the discovery of new insecticides from spider venom. She also tweets about equity in science.
From the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) - @QAAFI:
- @DrHikov
Dr Lee Hickey conducts plant breeding research on wheat at UQ’s QAAFI, spattering his twitter feed with beautiful pictures of field work and fast facts on his research while searching for solutions to global food security issues.
The Global Change Institute (GCI) - @GCITweet:
GCI Communication Fellow John Cook tweets on climate change and science writing. He’s responsible for a paper documenting the scientific consensus on climate change, and has had his work retweeted by President Barack Obama. He also tweets from @denial101x, an account linked with the free edX online course, Making Sense of Climate Science Denial.
From the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences - @UQMBS
Get the facts behind the news headline of infectious disease outbreaks with Associate Professor Ian Mackay. The virologist specialises in MERS and has a healthy knowledge on Ebola and influenza H7N9. Follow him for facts, stats and commentary on what’s happening in the virus world while providing humorous commentary on life as a researcher. He also blogs at http://www.virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au/
UQ’s Senior Executive:
Provost and Senior Vice-President Max Lu is an award winning nanomaterials researcher, and has more than 500 journal publications. He tweets on UQ’s latest research and university issues.
