From complexity to clarity: A career in science communication
We speak with Dr. Niamh Shaw, an Irish engineer, scientist and award-winning science communicator whose career has taken an extraordinary turn - from academic research to analogue astronaut missions, zero-gravity flights and international space exploration.
ARTICLE SUMMARYIn this Spilling the T episode, we speak with Dr. Niamh Shaw, an Irish engineer, scientist and award-winning science communicator whose career has taken an extraordinary turn - from academic research to analogue astronaut missions, zero-gravity flights and international space exploration. You can do everything “right” on paper and still feel like your career is shrinking. Kayleigh Bateman sits down withDr. Niamh Shaw, an Irishengineer, scientist, and award-winningsciencecommunicator whose path bends from a PhD and academic research into theatre, broadcasting, astronaut training, and space exploration storytelling. The thread isn’t luck or a perfect plan, it’s the moment she stops treating her biggest passion as unrealistic and starts treating it as a direction. We dig into the hard parts people rarely say out loud: losingconfidenceas a teen, feeling isolated in academia, and the quiet pressure to perform a certain kind of success. Niamh shares how values-basedcareerchoices changed everything for her, why collaboration beats hierarchy for some personalities, and how “the thing you’re most embarrassed about” can become your unique advantage. If you’re navigating acareer change, a non-linear path, or a squiggly career inSTEM, you’ll hear language for what you’ve been feeling. Then we get practical aboutsciencecommunication and public engagement. Niamh explains how she keeps scientific accuracy while making complex research accessible: read deeply, verify what you don’t understand, and translate jargon into clean analogies rooted in everyday life. We also talk about whySTEMcan feel excluding, how fear of being wrong shuts down curiosity, and why it’s okay to learn while you’re still “in the fog. ”Finally, Niamh breaks down what a simulated Mars mission taught her aboutresilience, water scarcity, teamwork, and perspective, plus how boldly stating a goal opened doors with the European Space Agency andNASAmedia work. Post Views:3CAREER BUILDING RESOURCESFOLLOW US ON SOCIALRELATED CONTENTRELATED CATEGORIESJOIN OUR COMMUNITYConnect with employersRELATED ARTICLESWe’re joined by Jenny Herbison, SVP of Global Marketing at Exclaimer as she shares a refreshing perspective on career growth in modern tech. What does it really take to reach the top in a male-dominated corporate world—and how do you do it without losing yourself along the way?In this episode, we sit down with Claudia Cohen, Director of La Fosse Academy and a recognised voice in the Women in Tech 100, to. . . Padmasini Dayananda, UCL-certified Uncertainty Expert™ and founder of the Triple-E Framework, explores how AI-driven disruption and organisational volatility disproportionately impact women in tech. She outlines. . .