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New article name goes here Toss Gascoigne is an editor and author in science communication.
His most recent book is 'Communicating Science. A Global Perspective', was published by ANU (Australian National University) Press, in Canberra, Australia in September 2020. It involves 108 authors describing how science communication has developed in 39 countries, and is the first serious attempt to document this development.
Gascoigne is a visiting fellow at the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University, in Canberra, Australia.
He has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Network for the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST Network) since 1994, and was elected as inaugural president in 2008. He helped the organisation become a truly international body, stretching from its original roots in France and Spain to all continents and countries across the world.
Prior to that he helped create Australian Science Communicators, a national association which created a community of people working on science communication in research organisations, museums, government departments and and consultants.
His career in science communication began in 1991, when he joined the CSIRO Division of Environmental Mechanics, at the Black Mountain in Canberra, as scientific editor.
In 1995 he was appointed Executive Director of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), now re-named Science and Technology Australia (STA). The previous director had died some 18 months before, and FASTS was in danger of collapsing. FASTS future was strengthened when the President became a de facto member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC).
It was the first science organisation to use the National Press Club. On March 19 1997, Dr Ian Lowe's speech was broadcast live broadcast live across Australia by tABC Television.
Later he developed and introduced Science meets Parliament, an Australian development of the American Congressional Visits Day. This event brought about 150 scientists into Canberra, for personal meetings with Federal Members of Parliament, where they explained what they were doing and the significance of their work. The event has been copied both within Australia, and in Europe and Canada.
In 2004 he resigned from FASTS to establish a new advocacy body. He served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences until 2008, working on policy, advocacy, funding and structural issues for the new organisation.
Over this period, from 1992 to the present day, Gascoigne has run hundreds of training workshops in Australia, the Pacific and a dozen other countries, working with Jenni Metcalfe. These have focussed on science communication, how to reach different audiences and explain complex concepts. The first workshop in Rockhampton trained 12 scientists in media skills, and since then the workshops have developed and expanded into other areas including presentation skills, planning science communication and writing for the reader.
He is a member of the international Network for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology, and helped transform PCST into a body with international reach. He is a founding member of Australian Science Communicators which he helped to establish in 1994. Toss is a former President and life member of both Australian Science Communicators and the PCST Network.
He is interested in the interface between science and policy, often using the media as a tool, and for 15 years headed national organisations in Australia. He worked as Executive Director of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) and the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS).
He has published on the history of modern science communication, on whether the field could be considered a discipline, and science advocacy. He has also written on the establishment of ‘Science meets Parliament’, a successful Australian initiative which allows scientists to meet national politicians to make the case for science and research to the government.
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