Her childhood dream of working with animals initially led Dr Corlia Meyer to study seabirds. As a student, she had to spend weeks on an island without water or electricity. The extreme experience honed her research skills but did make her seriously reconsider her academic path. She has since found new ways of living out her passion for nature, and is now researching how information about the environment and the sciences behind it can be shared with the public in a better way.
Meyer is a postdoctoral researcher of the South African Research Chair in Science Communication (SciCOM), based in the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University. She will be the next speaker in the Research Development Division's Forward with Research Impact lecture series.
On Thursday, 18 September at 13:00 in Room 1028 in the Old Main Building (Law Faculty) she will discuss the value of various citizen science projects in South Africa. She will shed light on whether they are more than just cost-saving ways by which scientists gather data on species with the help of Jo Public, and whether the knowledge of sciences of members of the public also increases in the process.
Child of nature
“I grew up with a love for animals and respect for nature," she remembers the many family vacations to Southern African nature reserves during her childhood. "I grew up knowing that I wanted to work with animals, and especially birds."
Meyer grew up in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, and completed her schooling at DF Malan High School in Bellville in 2007. A BSc in Conservation Ecology at Stellenbosch University seemed a logical course of study.
In 2012, she spread her wings to the University of Cape Town's Animal Demography Unit (ADU), for a master's degree in zoology focusing on bank cormorants. Around 3 000 of these pitch-black seabirds are still found in the world – all along the southern African west coast.
Her cormorant studies took her to Robben Island in Table Bay, Jutten Island near Langebaan and Stony Point's penguin colony at Betties Bay. She learnt to handle penguins, seagulls and other seabirds - but not once did she touch a bank cormorant!
“They are only found near the mainland when they breed. Because they are so rare, one may not approach them or go closer to them than 30 meters. You don't want to bother them when they breed, because it might just give an opportunity to gulls to eat their eggs or chicks," she explains.
Meyer still vividly remembers the extensive periods alone on Jutten Island: “We were just two young girls together, without water or electricity. It was an incredible challenge physically and emotionally, but I became a much better researcher as a result," emphasizes Meyer, who obtained her master's degree in 2014. "I don't think anything will ever be as difficult for me again."
Environmental Education
During her master's degree studies, Meyer regularly talked on radio and at bird clubs about her own research and that of other bird researchers with whom she worked. In the process, she gave her first steps in the field of science communication.
Because she began to reconsider whether she really wanted to be a scientist working long hours in the field, she took up a position at a NGO in Cape Town that among other things provides tutoring programs in mathematics and the sciences for high school learners. She rewrote the math curriculum that was being followed, and took over the environmental education leg.
“I'm not a teacher, but I am really very good at organizing," admits Meyer, who guesses that it is a skill that she inherited from her father, a civil engineer.
While pursuing this avenue, Meyer began to realise that there is a dearth of information available on how to successfully develop environmental education programmes.
Talking about science
Meyer's path towards science communication was being paved meter by meter. She enrolled in an online short course in 2015 offered by CREST, and also started to attend the regular Science Fridays events at SU where experts talk about their ideas and projects.
When the learning bug bit again, Meyer enrolled for a PhD in Science and Technology (Science Communication) under the guidance of Prof Peter Weingart. She achieved this in 2018, by surveying what Stellenbosch people from different spheres of life thought about nature and environmental issues.
“You can't communicate science to the public if you don't know how they're going to receive it and where they get their information from," she summarizes one of the most important lessons she learned during her doctorate years.
She believes that many researchers who venture out into science communication make the mistake of thinking one message or one medium will reach the public at large.
“There is not just one public. People don't all understand science in precisely the same way. There are different publics from different backgrounds and cultures. Some publics find themselves further from the sciences. Physically, but also in knowledge. Other publics are much closer to science," she emphasizes. “If you do not understand what these publics looks like, it will be impossible for you to communicate the right information to them. You have to have different packages and approaches."
Meyer also does not believe that one can summarily transplant Western styles of science communication and hope they take root in a multicultural, diverse South Africa.
Finding her feet in the academy
Meyer received her doctorate in 2018. An unexpected consequence of these studies were that she started horse riding again shortly after she started pursuing the degree. As a way of relaxing and coping, she lets slip.
“Sitting on a horse's back gives you a whole different perspective on the world. You are higher. Even though you think you are in control, it's actually the horse that is. It's a one-ton animal that can easily throw you off its back if it so pleases. Sometimes you just have to accept what has to happen. And allow it to happen," she explains.
Horse riding is a metaphor for a life in academia and how she as a young researcher needs to find her feet: “The results are not always what one expects. Or you don't get the feedback at the speed at which you would have liked to. In such situations you simply have to take a step back. Breathe. And look."
