Mandarin science podcasts launched
Updated
Australia's peak scientific body CSIRO has launched a series of Mandarin podcasts.
The podcasts feature interviews with five of the 400 Mandarin-speaking scientists working at CSIRO. They discuss their current research and their experience of working at CSIRO.
Presenter: Tom Fayle
Speaker: Mike Whelan Deputy Chief Executive of CSIRO
Mike Whelan, Deputy Chief Executive of CSIRO talking about their recently launched Mandarin-language podcasts available at www.csiro.au.
WHELAN: Well, it's exciting opportunity for us. We have about 50,000 to 70,000 downloads from our web site each month of our existing English speaking podcasts and as you indicated in your introduction, we've got about 400 staff who speak or who were born in China. And China's our fastest growing collaborator in terms of joint publications and in joint research projects. So what we're hoping that these Mandarin podcasts will achieve for us are an increased awareness of the amount of activity we currently have underway with our Chinese counterparts and hopefully enable us to attract more Chinese students to work in our laboratory and more Chinese collaborators to partner with us on research projects.
FAYLE: And so what have you been highlighting in this first series?
WHELAN: Well, we've got some scientists talking about the work they have done in Australia on developing greenhouse accounting systems. We've had people talking about the work they have done in developing new forest germ plasm and many Australians probably know from their travels around the world that Australian trees, eucalypts are grown around the world, that's also the case in China. And so they are the types of research that our scientists are talking about.
FAYLE: And these podcasts, are they multi-media or simply audio?
WHELAN: No, they are simply audio at this stage. We do have some vodcasts, but at this stage we don't have a Mandarin vodcaster, but that is something we're considering for the future.
FAYLE: Alright you mentioned that you've been seeking to encourage collaboration and perhaps more students coming here. Is that a reflection perhaps partially at least of the exodus of academic talent leaving Australia?
WHELAN: No, I don't think so. I think Australia in recent years has been very successful attracting back research talent. I think perhaps what it does highlight though is the increasingly strong link between Australia and China economically and also the strong links in terms of some of the challenges that we face together.
Your listeners are probably aware of the great work that Australia has done recently in mapping the water flows in the Murray-Darling Basin. It's probably no surprise that water and where it is in China is also a major issue, as is clean energy, as is sustainable agriculture. And so many of the challenges that Australian scientists are working on are also challenges that our counterparts in China face, and therefore there is an interest in sharing capability and expertise to address those issues.
FAYLE: And to what extent is that collaboration between scientists in Australia and China already taking place?
WHELAN: Oh in fact, I think the great thing about this particular podcast launch is what we're highlighting today is 32 years of research collaboration with China. We have 32 years of research. In the last three years. the number of joint publications with Chinese counterparts has risen by 20 per cent per annum. In fact joint publications with China now rank number two only to the United States and so we've got a long history and its accelerating.
FAYLE: And Mike Whelan, what's been the response of the Chinese Government?
WHELAN: Oh it's been very exciting. I shared the podcast launch with the Chinese ambassador yesterday. He was absolutely delighted. To him it was another signal of the strong links between CSIRO and the Chinese Academy of Science and other counterparts in his country and also a signal of the very strong links that now exists between us economically. And it was delightful to have some 40 to 50 Chinese staff attend the Podcast launch and we had nearly 400 staff out of 6,500 who either are native speaking, Mandarin speakers who were born in China. So he was delighted to see this happening.
FAYLE: So briefly Mike Whelan, another series is being planned?
WHELAN: Hm, well, we're looking to extend this all the time. We've definitely got people looking to put together some further Mandarin podcasts and we'll hopefully launch that in the next little while.
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