About Eu-Sol
Find out more about this project.
An introduction to the aims of EU-SOL and how we plan to achieve them. Plus read about the organisations and people working on this project.
Alex Garlick
Alex somewhere on Mt Etna
Photographer: Unknown. Copyright free
Organisation: Natural History Museum
Job title: EU-SOL Public Engagement researcher
What do you do?
Well I designed and wrote most of the content on this website. I’ve tried to include what I found interesting and exciting about the project. I also wanted to make the connection from this cutting edge project to our every day lives.
How did you get involved in the project?
I work in the general area of Science Communication and before I took this job spent three years at At-Bristol. There I did science shows and workshops for the public and school children. I also did work where I acted as a facilitator between scientists and the public.
I found it amazing how people with no scientific background grasped complex concepts so quickly and found that both the public and scientists were really enthused by talking about how their work actually fitted into real world.
It was those experiences that made me leap at the opportunity to work within a scientific project and help tell the story of how it fitted into the world of day to day life.
What do you hope to achieve by the end of this project?
Well in terms of tomatoes.. Some really great tasting fruit that we can pick up easily for the super market...
…But from my perspective I would like people to think more about what they are eating and the plants around them.
Pieces of me
What do you currently have on your bedside table?
Several books, the one propped open is ‘The Cloud Spotters Guide’ an excellent tome which touts itself as the challenger to blue sky thinking. Plus a radio tuned to Radio Four, if only because the grate of John Humphries’s voice on the eardrums is always sufficient to wake me up.
What brings you back to the real world at the end of the day?
Being asked time and time again by my parents, housemates, friends.. ‘so what is it that you do?’
How do you sleep at night?
Okay.
If you weren’t yourself which person (historical or otherwise) would you most like to be?
I don’t think I’d really like to be anyone famous but that said I think David Attenborough has had an incredible life. Seen the most amazing things, opened so many peoples’ eyes to so much around them and never lost his enthusiasm or freshness of touch.
What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever received?
Mothers are always right
If you were an instrument what would you be?
Definitely a trumpet. I like how they’re so unglamorous but rather fun.
What’s one exciting thing that has happened to you in the course of your work?
Seeing people pick up on something they have never considered before and bring their own fresh thoughts and angle to it is a real buzz. I think that everything can be interesting to everyone you just have to find the key to unlock it.
What would be your one desert island luxury?
Pencil and paper, I’d take up sketching again or at least write to the council to complain about the heat.
What’s one thing about science you wish the public understood better?
It’s just an educated guess but it’s still the best we’ve got.
A friend has just invited themselves to dinner, what will they be getting?
Pumpkin soup (the veg box desperately needs emptying) and if they’re lucky a bottle of wine.
If you had a megaphone what would you be shouting from the roof tops?
Let’s all relax and have a nice cup of tea.
What’s just around the corner?
If I knew that I’d be playing the pools.
