Chancellor's Award for Excellence and Faculty Award of Excellence: Science
Ben Newsome has always been fascinated with how the world works.
His time at UTS taught him that science is a way of thinking and gave him a methodical and rational way to understanding complexity. Most importantly, it taught him that our impact on the environment is real and measurable – and we can do something about it.
After graduating with a degree in environmental biology, Ben’s love of nature and the outdoors propelled him into bush regeneration. But while working in the field, he was surprised by the lack of public understanding about the environment and the work his team were doing.
Realising more education was urgently needed, especially around environmental science, Ben retrained as a high school science teacher. His drive to make an impact at scale led him to create his own STEM education provider – Fizzics Education – in 2004. Now, almost 20 years later, Fizzics Education has reached 3 million children through STEM outreach programs and professional development for teachers.
In collaboration with non-profits, government, and corporations, Ben has also created and delivered social impact programs in Australia and beyond, working with organisations such as the NRMA, GWS Giants, Optus, and many others.
In 2013, Ben was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship – a career-defining experience that enabled him to travel to the US and learn about best practice in science education via video conferencing. From there he gained the confidence to successfully apply to be an AMP Tomorrow Maker in 2020.
Along with Fizzics Education, in 2012 Ben also co-founded Virtual Excursions Australia – a non-profit that creates virtual events and shares best practice guidelines for cultural institutions and distance education managers. And in 2015, he co-founded the Pinnacle Education Collaborative, a network of more than 30 cultural organisations in the US delivering virtual excursions to schools, retirement homes, and more.
Ben is passionate about the importance of science education and its ability to give people the capacity to separate fact from fiction, something he believes is crucial in today’s world.
Science underpins our society. Whether you’re actively involved in science or you’re using the products developed by science, it’s important either way. We will always need science education and it’s crucial that it’s well supported.