Joan Leach Joan Leach photo

Prof Joan Leach

Director, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS)

20052023

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

I have held the role of Director of the Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the ANU (colloquially known as 'CPAS') since January 2016.  Given the broad nature of CPAS research and teaching interests in science communication, public engagement, policy, knowledge brokering, risk, and ethics, I strive to make the Centre a home for inter- and transdisciplinary research and collaboration.   

My own research and teaching centres on theories of the public in science communication, language and rhetoric in science (both in public and in technical contexts), and the challenge of ethics in science communication.  I'm most interested in sociological accounts of knowledge production and I edited the journal Social Epistemology for 9 years.  

I am a past president of Australian Science Communicators, a founding member of the American Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology, and am past Chair of the  National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science at the Australian Academy of Science.  Purdue University (USA) awarded me a science laureateship for services to public engagement with science. 

I have called Australia home since 2005.  I have been privileged to work at a number of world-leading Universities including Imperial College London, the University of Queensland, and the University of Pittsburgh. 

Qualifications

Bachelors of Arts, Bachelors of Science honours, Masters of Arts, PhD

Research Interests

Science communication history and theories of the public

Public Argumentation about Controversial Science with special interest in synthetic biology, Quantum technologies, neuroethics, and population health

Responsible Research and Innovation

Social Epistemology; how society makes and communicates knowledge

Rhetorical approaches to scientific argumentation--contemporary and historical

Ethical approaches to Science Communication



Education/Academic qualification

Rhetoric of Science, PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Award Date: 5 Jan 1995

Biology, Bachelor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Award Date: 1 May 1992

English Literature, Bachelor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Award Date: 1 May 1992

External Scholarly Memberships and Affiliations

Associate Professor , University of Queensland

20022015

Senior Lecturer in Science communication, Imperial College London

19962001

Research student supervision

  • Registered to supervise

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics where Joan Leach is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • 1 Similar Profiles

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Find out about recent ANU collaborations across the world by selecting a location on the map OR