Johannes Debler was amongst twelve national early career researcher finalists hailing from other universities and research institutions that were required to communicate their research in just three minutes, using simple, everyday language.
Johannes won over the judges with his talk Lentil soup: now with extra immune system which allowed him to share his work on investigating the interactions between fungal diseases of lentil and chickpea with their host, research funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).
Johannes said he spent many months trying to take away the jargon, which was very challenging as he didn’t want to make his research too simple.
“I’m used to speaking to a room full of scientists who are in the same field, so standing in front of an audience that needs to be convinced that the thing I do is actually worth doing without overloading them with scientific terms is very difficult,” Johannes said.
“It’s challenging, but it’s very rewarding in the end, especially when the jokes land.”
Johannes will go on to represent Australia in the international FameLab Final, which will be held online on 29 November 2024.
Listen to the ABC radio interview here
The Foundation for the WA Museum has been the producer and country host organisation of FameLab Australia since 2019. For more information on FameLab Austrlalia, click here.
CCDM is a national research centre co-supported by Curtin University and GRDC.