Dr Jon Copley

I'm a marine ecologist, trying to understand the patterns of life in island-like habitats beneath the waves. I work at the University of Southampton, in the National Oceanography Centre. Much of my research is focused on exploring newly-discovered "islands" of life on the ocean floor, where colonies of deep-sea species thrive around chemical sources of energy such as volcanic vents.

In terms of science communication, I used to be a full-time reporter and news editor at New Scientist magazine and I still write popular science articles for a variety of publications. My research also attracts quite a lot of media interest; I've worked with documentary-makers for the BBC and Discovery Channel and given interviews ranging from BBC News 24 to the Paul O'Grady Show. I'm also involved in schools outreach, which I'm increasingly realising is a vital activity. And I enjoy "direct" outreach and engagement, in the form of public lectures and cafe scientifique type events. I'm particularly interested in the potential of "new media" for direct public engagement on a wider scale.

When I'm not doing my research etc, I also teach courses in science communication, media skills and public outreach to undergraduates, PhD students and established researchers. I teach these courses for universities and institutes around the UK (and now beyond) through the company SciConnect Ltd, which I co-founded with Claire Ainsworth, the architect of this social network.

I'm here on this network to find out what other people are doing in terms of science communication and outreach, hopefully learn from their experiences and share my own where useful. I absolutely subscribe to the sentiment in the quote from Carl Sagan on the front page of the network: I think it is vitally important that scientists engage wider audiences about their work, and if scientists won't do that, no-one else will promote science for them.

There are lots of people out there running excellent initiatives in communication and outreach; the challenge now is to join up those islands and share best practice etc. And that's what I hope Connecting Science can help to do.