Bruno Pinto on the ScienceCast podcast

MARE researcher Bruno Pinto was the latest guest on the podcast ScienceCast - A Conversation with Science, for a 30-minute conversation on science communication.

Interested in comics from a very young age, Bruno Pinto is a researcher in the field of science communication, covering topics such as biodiversity and climate change. As a biologist by training, after being invited by the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN) to create a comic strip about the Iberian lynx, the MARE researcher took the initiative to create a comic strip about climate change in Portugal. He is currently the author of several scientific publications, four comic books and a documentary.

In a conversation with Mónica Ribau, CICECO's communications manager, Bruno Pinto talked about the difficult reconciliation between science communication and comics, the creative process, his professional career, and the “state of the art” of this still emerging area in Portugal.

“There has been a lot of evolution, even though there is a community of science communicators, and there is a SciCom network, in which there is a small community that meets annually and exchanges experiences, and there is training,” explains the researcher. “In a way, there has been an affirmation of the class of science communicators, but it's still in its infancy.”

Despite this, Bruno Pinto identifies some differences between the development of science communication in Portugal and the rest of Europe. “Although European projects give a lot of importance to science communication, and there is funding, and this is highly valued, in Portugal I think we are still a little behind,” says the researcher.

For the MARE researcher, there is room to do better, and that the problem “probably has to do with the lack of funding in science, which obviously also affects science communication”.

Science Cast - A Conversation with Science, is a science podcast that invites you to meet scientists, managers and science communicators in each episode. This PlaySolutions Audiovisuals podcast is developed in partnership with the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Aveiro Institute of Materials (CICECO), both from the University of Aveiro.

To access the episode click HERE