The Science Journalists Association of Australia Committee is responsible for setting the direction of the Association, championing science journalism in Australia and beyond and creating professional development opportunities for members.
Committee members are elected at the Annual General Meeting, held in the final quarter of each year. The 2024-2025 Committee is below.
President: Dr Jackson Ryan
Dr. Jackson Ryan has been working as a science journalist — covering the intersection between science, technology, health and culture — for almost a decade. Between 2019 and 2023, he was the global science editor at powerhouse US tech publication, CNET.com, elevating science stories from a readership of 11 million per year to 45 million, partly buoyed by award-winning coverage of the COVID19 pandemic. He worked as a science and tech reporter at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2023.
He currently works as a freelancer, penning news, feature, investigative and long form work in places such as The New York Times, Nature Index, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. His interests also lie in supporting video games journalism in Australia. You should ask him about it.
Alongside Carl Smith, he is the editor of the 2024 edition of the Best Science Writing Anthology. You should buy that.
He posts, poorly @drjr and you should never go there. You can reach him via the SJAA email.
Vice President: Carl Smith
Carl Smith is a Walkley Award-winning science reporter in the ABC’s Science Unit. He makes radio features for RN’s Science Show, Health Report, and other programs. He also writes and co-hosts the kids’ ethics podcast Short & Curly. Carl worked briefly as a geneticist before joining the ABC as a News Cadet. He’s been a reporter on Behind the News, and presented the ABC TV series Minibeast Heroes. @CarlSmithAUS
Secretary: Sara Phillips
Sara Phillips is an award-winning science writer and editor based in Melbourne, Australia. Currently, she is executive editor for the Asia-Pacific region of Nature Research Group’s custom media arm. Previously, she was the national environment reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and editor of ABC Environment online. Starting out on an environmental trade publications WME and Inside Waste, she later became deputy editor of Cosmos magazine, and founding editor of G magazine, a sustainable lifestyle magazine. @ms_sara_p
Treasurer: Currently vacant
Felicity Nelson
Felicity Nelson is a science and health journalist with bylines in ScienceAlert, Guardian Australia, news.com, Mamamia, Croakey, HealthEd, The Medical Republic and Lawyers Weekly. Her stories were published in The Best Australian Science Writing anthologies in 2020, 2019 and 2017. She served as the SJAA Treasurer between 2021 and 2024.
You can find her @frogsandstars.
Manuela Callari
Manuela Callari is a science journalist and content specialist. In a past life, she was a scientist who engineered miniature ‘Trojan horses’ armed with anticancer drugs capable of infiltrating and annihilating malignant cells from within. Today, she narrates the tales of other researchers—their scientific quests, triumphs, and setbacks. Having walked the path from the opposite end of the laboratory bench, she has an intimate understanding of the intricate rhythm and subtleties of research, bring a unique perspective to the table.
Her reporting ranges from core science to the environment to medicine and health and have been published in MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, Cosmos Magazine, The Medical Republic, Rare Disease Advisor, and others. I have worked with Science Custom Publishing, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne, and Monash University, among others.
Alongside Suzannah Lyons, Manuela helps coordinate events and workshops for SJAA members.
Suzannah Lyons
Suzannah Lyons trained as both a chemist and a journalist and was previously the online science reporter for ABC Science, reporting on the latest research news and issues in science and health as part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s specialist science unit. She found she was better at telling stories than hanging out in the lab. She can still make a mean batch of cornflour slime.
Alongside Manuela Callari, Suzannah helps coordinate events and workshops for SJAA members.
Matt Agius
Matthew Ward Agius is a journalist covering science, the environment, politics and culture. He currently works as a journalist for Germany’s international broadcaster DW (Deutsche Welle). His reporting has appeared in Cosmos, InDaily, The Canberra Times and other Australian Community Media mastheads, and the Best Australian Science Writing 2024. He can also be heard covering science stories for ABC Local Radio.
Lydia Hales
Lydia Hales is a writer, editor and award-winning freelance science journalist. She is particularly interested in health, medical research and social issues – and before joining the Australian Academy of Science, worked in-house as a reporter for ABC News (across radio, TV & online), The Medical Republic, and Australian Doctor magazine.
Her freelance writing has also been published by Guardian Australia, South China Morning Post, Cosmos, Australian Geographic, and in a few small creative writing anthologies. She was one of two inaugural recipients of the SJAA Journalist in Residence program.
Past SJAA Committees
2023-2024 Committee
Jackson Ryan (President)
Carl Smith (Vice President)
Sara Phillips (Secretary)
Felicity Nelson (Treasurer)
Jacinta Bowler
Manuela Callari
Rich Haridy
Suzannah Lyons
Bianca Nogrady
Lyndal Rowlands
2022-2023 Committee
Bianca Nogrady (President)
Neena Bhandari
Jacinta Bowler
Rich Haridy
Felicity Nelson
Sara Phillips
Jackson Ryan
Ruby Prosser Scully
Carl Smith
Clare Watson
2021-2022 Committee
Neena Bhandari
Jacinta Bowler
Wilson da Silva
Dyani Lewis
Felicity Nelson
Bianca Nogrady (President)
Nicky Phillips
Sara Phillips
Jackson Ryan
Ruby Prosser Scully
Carl Smith
2020-2021 Committee
Neena Bhandari
Dyani Lewis
Natasha Mitchell
Fran Molloy
Bianca Nogrady (President)
Nicky Phillips
Sara Phillips
Ruby Prosser Scully
Carl Smith
Michelle Starr
Founding Committee (2019)
The Science Journalists of Australia was founded in June 2019 by:
Dyani Lewis
Natasha Mitchell
Fran Molloy
Bianca Nogrady (President)
Nicky Phillips
Sara Phillips
Stephen Pincock
Wilson da Silva
Carl Smith
Jonathan Webb