Introduction

Professor Robyn Williams is perhaps the leading science journalist in Australia. As Executive Producer of the ABC’s Science Unit and presenter of The Science Show, one of the longest-running programs on Australian radio, Williams has made a significant contribution to the public understanding of science. In 1993 Williams became the first journalist elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

In this conversation with Dr Elizabeth Finkel, Williams recalls a stellar career against the backdrop of a childhood in post-war Europe and discusses what drew him to science, the arts and science broadcasting. He admits to graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in England despite spending as much time acting as studying. He talks of moving to Australia twice – first as a ten-pound pom inspired by an Australian friend and advertisements for migration on London public transport, then as a new graduate who successfully argued his way into a job in the ABC’s Science Unit in 1972. 

Professor Williams recalls the early days of the Science Unit. A broadcast division whose creation was greatly influenced by Academy Fellows like Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Marc Oliphant, and John Eccles, whose return to home after World War II was crucial in Australia establishing and communicating a scientific tradition of its own, independent of Europe and America. 

Williams also covers the beginnings of The Science Show, developing new programs for broadcast and the highs, lows, and major stories of his fifty years at the ABC. He talks about what has changed over the course of his career and what hasn’t, his hopes for the future, his appreciation for the long shadow of history and what inspires him about scientists today.