2016 Skeptic of the year

Dr Siouxsie Wiles, recipient of the NZ Skeptics Denis Dutton Award

Siouxsie is frequently to be found blogging or on the TV or radio, explaining in a down-to-earth manner current developments in science, or why she is skeptical of certain claims whenever they appear in the media. In 2016 alone she took on MPs, anti-vaxxers and Mike Hosking, as well as tackling topics such as e-cigarettes and the Zika virus. She regularly appears in the “Skeptical Thoughts” radio slot with Graeme Hill on Radio Live, and she also has a fortnightly slot on Radio New Zealand's "Nine to Noon" show, talking about science. She was nominated for the Denis Dutton award in recognition of her outstanding communication skills and sustained efforts to demonstrate critical thinking, skepticism and the scientific method.

Siouxsie was born in the UK, and then lived for about 10 years in South Africa. Her family returned to the UK in her mid-teens and she completed her schooling in Hull, Yorkshire. She studied for a BSc(Hons) in Medical Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She went to Edinburgh for an open day at the University and fell in love with the city at once, so decided that was the place for her to be. Her fascination with infectious diseases was kindled during these years. In Edinburgh she supported herself by working in pubs, both at the bar and in the kitchen. She cannot confirm or deny whether she ever deep-fried a Mars bar.

After completing her undergraduate degree in 1997 she immediately began her PhD study at Napier University (also in Edinburgh) on a topic in environmental microbiology (using microbes as pollution sensors for industrial waste). This research project began with a secondment to a lab in Oxford, where she ended up staying for her entire PhD project. She submitted her PhD thesis in 2001, a little after starting a postdoctoral research position on Tuberculosis at Imperial College London. She then got a lecturing position at Imperial and became settled in London, working on a range of topics in infectious disease.

In 2009 she was awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and moved with her family to the University of Auckland. Her husband Steven, looking for ways to meet new people, happened to find out about Skeptics in the Pub and so they went along. This was the beginning of their interest in skepticism. Several pivotal events occurred around this time. Dr Ben Albert (also a regular at Auckland Skeptics in the Pub) gave Siouxsie the book "Trick or Treatment" by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. In particular, this book challenges scientists to devote more attention to publicly challenging pseudoscience. For Siouxsie this was a rallying cry that she embraced with vigour. Then in 2010 she met Peter Griffin at the Skeptics Conference in Auck-land (where Siouxsie gave a talk about the MMR bad science story). Peter encouraged her to write a blog for the Science Media Center site SciBlogs. Her blog "Infectious Thoughts" covers a wide range of scientific and skeptical topics. Her two most read blog posts of all time are about the "1Above" drink sold at airports (which is claimed to naturally support the body against the impact of jet lag), and about a tattoo removal cream scam.

In the following years she honed her skills in science communication, particularly through blogging and talks at Skeptics in the Pub, Nerdnite, and the NZ Skeptics Conference. Her first TV appearance was on Close Up (with Mike Hosking standing in for Mark Sainsbury on that particular occasion) to give expert opinion on the outbreak of E.Coli in salad in Germany (she had worked on E.Coli at Imperial). Subsequently she developed a good relationship with a number of journalists in NZ, and this has led to further communication opportunities in print media, radio and TV. She also became in-demand as a speaker for various societies and organisations, such as U3A, Rotary, Lions, etc and more recently has been asked by several schools and higher education colleges to give graduation speeches. She gave TEDx talks in Christchurch in 2014 and Auckland in 2015. She was invited to give talks and perform hands-on activities at Australian Science Week in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and the World Science Festival in Brisbane in 2016.

In recognition of her science communication she was awarded the New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) Science Communication Award in 2012 and both the Prime Minister's Science Media Communication Prize and Royal Society Of New Zealand's Callaghan Medal in 2013.

We caught up with Siouxsie to ask about some of her more recent projects -

She spent the first 2 months of 2017 writing a book about infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance. This will be published soon in the BWB Texts series of Bridget Williams Books. Over the last few months she has been working with SciFilms and Damien Christie to produce a web series for kids about microbiology that is presented by Siouxsie's 10 year old daughter.

In terms of research, she has an ongoing project on evolution of microbes (in particular, a relative of the food-poisoning E. coli). Visit http://www.superbugslab.org for more details of her lab and research projects. She is also crowdfunding a research project to test NZ fungi for antibiotic/antimicrobial properties.

Visit https://www.giving.auckland.ac.nz/en/FundPages/new-medicines-to-kill-superbugs-fund.html for details, and to donate if you wish.

Her service roles include being on the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Her focus on this committee is issues around diversity in science.

As this brief summary indicates, Siouxsie has been working tirelessly to advance Science, Science Communication, and Skepticism in NZ.