Dr Will Grant

Senior Lecturer, Science Communication

Dr Will Grant is Associate Professor in Science Communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU. Awarded for his public policy and outreach work, Will has authored or co-authored dozens of works in various scholarly outlets (including Public Understanding of Science, Environmental Communication, Computers in Human Behaviour, Scientometrics and Higher Education Policy), and written commissioned and pitched articles and opinion pieces in high impact public facing outlets (including The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Conversation, Times Higher Education, The Canberra Times, The Brisbane Times, Crikey, The Drum, Climate Spectator and ABC Environment), focusing mostly on the interaction of science, politics and technology. He is co-founder of the researcher employment service PostAc.

Will is regularly heard on Radio National discussing science for Research Filter and Nightlife, as well as podcasting in The Wholesome Show, G'day Patriots and G'day Sausages, charting in the Australian iTunes top 50. Will has held science communication workshops for a range of Australia's leading science organisations, including Universities Australia, Science and Technology Australia and the Australian Academy of Science, as well has dozens of universities and research institutes, government departments and scientific societies around the country. He tweets at @willozap.

A more extensive CV of publications and other outputs can be found here.

Research interests

Science communication

Research, science and technology policy

Political theory

Social Media / Social Network Analysis

  • Walsh, E, Sargent, G & Grant, W 2021, 'Not just a pretty picture: Scientific fact visualisation styles, preferences, confidence and recall', Information Visualization, vol. 20, no. 2-3, pp. 138-150.
  • Badullovich, N, Grant, W & Colvin, B 2020, 'Framing climate change for effective communication: a systematic map', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 1-16.
  • Huang, T & Grant, W 2020, 'A Good Story Well Told: Storytelling Components That Impact Science Video Popularity on YouTube', Frontiers in Communication, vol. 5, pp. 1-15.
  • Strudwicke, I & Grant, W 2020, '#JunkScience: Investigating pseudoscience disinformation in the Russian Internet Research Agency tweets', Public Understanding of Science, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 459-472.
  • Colvin, R. M., Kemp, L., Talberg, A., De Castella, C., Downie, C., Friel, S., Grant, W. J., Howden, S. M., Jotzo, F., Markham, F. & Platow, M. J. 2020, 'Learning from the Climate Change Debate to Avoid Polarisation on Negative Emissions', Environmental Communication 14:1, 23-35, DOI:10.1080/17524032.2019.1630463.
  • Nurse, M & Grant, W 2019, 'I'll See It When I Believe It: Motivated Numeracy in Perceptions of Climate Change Risk', Environmental Communication, vol. Online, pp. 1-18.
  • Xu, C, Mewburn, I, Grant, W et al. 2019, 'PostAc : A Visual Interactive Search, Exploration, and Analysis Platform for PhD Intensive Job Postings', 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, ACL 2018, ed. Anna Korhonen, David Traum, Lluís Màrquez, Association for Computational Linguistics, Stroudsburg, pp. 43-48.
  • Kenny, M, Grant, W, Hare, J et al. 2019, Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: Campus free speech, ministerial discretion, and cheerio coal.
  • Amarasekara, I & Grant, W 2019, 'Exploring the YouTube science communication gender gap: A sentiment analysis', Public Understanding of Science, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 68-84.
  • Linvill, D, Boatwright, B, Grant, W et al 2019, 'THE RUSSIANS ARE HACKING MY BRAIN!' Investigating Russia's internet research agency twitter tactics during the 2016 United States presidential campaign', Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 99, pp. 292-300.
  • Major, T, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2018, 'Are farmers empowered? The role of empowerment in farmer decision making about weed and invertebrate management', Rural Extension and Innovation Systems Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
  • Linvill, D, Boatwright, B & Grant, W 2018, '"Back-stage" dissent: student Twitter use addressing instructor ideology', Communication Education, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 125-143.
  • Mewburn, I, Grant, W, Suominen, H et al. 2018, 'A Machine Learning Analysis of the Non-academic Employment Opportunities for Ph.D. Graduates in Australia', Higher Education Policy, vol. 33, pp. 799-813.
  • Vilkins, S & Grant, W 2017, 'Types of evidence cited in Australian Government publications', Scientometrics, vol. 113, no. 3, pp. 1681-1695.
  • Linvill, D & Grant, W 2017, 'The role of student academic beliefs in perceptions of instructor ideological bias', Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 274-287pp.
  • Doran, M, Barnett, A, Leach, J et al. 2017, 'Can video improve grant review quality and lead to more reliable ranking?', Research Ideas and Outcomes, vol. 3.
  • Mewburn, I, Grant, W, Kizimchuk, S et al. 2016, 'The use of machine learning to analyze job advertisements for doctoral employability', Quality in Postgraduate Research (QPR) 2016, ed. Michelle Picard, Alistair McCulloch, QPR - Quality in Postgraduate Research, Australia, p. 184.
  • Welbourne, D & Grant, W 2016, 'Science communication on YouTube: Factors that affect channel and video popularity', Public Understanding of Science, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 706-718.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2016, 'Farmer innovativeness and hybrid rice diffusion in Bangladesh', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 108, pp. 54-62.
  • Mewburn, I, Grant, W, Suominen, H et al 2016, 'What do non academic employers want? A critical examination of 'PhD shaped' job advertisements for doctoral employability', Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual International Conference 2016, SRHE and Open University Press, unknown, pp. 3pp.
  • Grant, W & Walsh, E 2015, 'Social evidence of a changing climate:Google Ngram data points to early climate change impact on human society', Weather, vol. 70, no. 7, pp. 195-197.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2015, 'Farmers' perception of risk in cultivating hybrid rice in Bangladesh', South African Journal of Agricultural Extension, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 17-29pp.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2014, 'Underlying reasons for non-adoption, disadoption and continuing adoption of hybrid rice in Bangladesh', Rural Extension & Innovation Systems Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 11-21.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2014, 'The influence of technological attributes and growers' satisfaction with household consumption of hybrid rice in Bangladesh', Bothalia, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 2-19.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2014, 'Adoption of Hybrid Rice in Bangladesh: Farm Level Experience', Journal of Agricultural Science, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 157-171.
  • Shah, M, Grant, W & Stocklmayer, S 2014, 'Determinants of farmers' decisions in adopting hybrid rice in Bangladesh', Journal for International Agricultural and Extension Education, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 1-3.
  • McKinnon, M, Orthia, LA, Grant, WJ & Lamberts, R 2014, 'Real-world assessment as an integral component of an undergraduate science communication program', International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 1-13.
  • Walker, G, Stocklmayer, S & Grant, W 2013, 'Science Theatre: Changing South African Students' Intended Behaviour Towards HIV AIDS', International Journal of Science Education. Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 101-120.
  • Grant, W 2013, 'The Role of Science and Technology in Public Policy: What is Knowledge for?', in John K Gilbert and Susan Stocklmayer (ed.), Communication and engagement with Science and Technology. Issues and Dilemmas, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York/Oxford, pp. 59-73.
  • Grant, W, Moon, B & Busby Grant, J 2010, 'Digital Dialogue? Australian Politicians' use of the Social Network Tool Twitter', Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 579-604.
  • Grant, W 2005, 'The Space of the Nation: An Examination of the Spatial Productions of Hindu Nationalism', Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 321-347.