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by Gay Woods
Questacon, Australia's leading interactive science and technology centre, has a new Director, Dr Annie Ghisalberti.
A biochemist, academic, entrepreneur and educator-Ghisalberti has made a major national and international contribution to areas as diverse as vocational education and training, health, women's issues and science communication-in addition to her scholarly research into hormones and management experience.
Dr Ghisalberti spoke to Gay Woods for Artbeat.
Questacon's founding director was the highly successful Dr Mike Gore. He has left you a challenging legacy and big shoes to fill but no doubt you have ideas of your own.
Mike's shoes are very large and they will be difficult to fill - not just because
he is a 6-ft bloke! Over the last 10 years he has been colleague, mentor and friend. Luckily he will still be living and working in Canberra (at the Australian National University) so I can still ask for advice. Mike started the science centre movement in Australia and Questacon is a testament to his vision and persistence.
We are both passionately committed to communicating science and making the Australian community know that science is fun, interesting, relevant to our everyday life and makes an exciting career. As a woman, a biochemist and as the director of a mature business rather than a new, visionary enterprise my priorities, tasks and style will be very different from Mike's.
Since May 1995 you've been the CEO of Scitech Discovery Centre in Perth. What opportunities are presented by the word 'national' in Questacon's role.
I will be pushing for Questacon to take an even greater leadership role in the science centre community. This can involve training of staff, consultancies, collaborative exhibitions and partnerships in all aspects of our business. One really great model was the collaboration between Scitech and Questacon to design, build and tour the very successful forensic science exhibition Whodunit?
Much has been done to reduce the scholarly divide between the sciences and the arts- but are we doing enough to ensure the wider understanding of the role of science in our culture? How does Questacon make a difference?
When both Questacon (the large version) and Scitech were set up in 1988 there was the belief that science was 'nerdy', difficult to grasp and not relevant to our lives. In fact Australians have always felt that sport was more part of our culture than boring old science.
Science centres have really made a difference and having Questacon as part of the Commonwealth Department for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts highlights this. Science centres contribute to our understanding of our world and ourselves. I am hoping to see an Australian 'feel' to the Questacon exhibitions in the next few years. Australians have won more Nobel prizes in science and medicine than
we have in any other area like literature-but can anyone name who they are? (Hint: there are seven of them).
In April Questacon will be ready to launch both its new-look foyer and a new permanent exhibition, SideShow, which will look at the science and technology of fun parks, from the phenomenon of fear to the probability of fortune telling.
How do you think Questacon will look after five years with you at the helm?
I want to see more technology, including biotechnology, not just computers. I want to ensure that leading-edge technologies are highlighted. As a biologist I want the centre to have a balance of physics (which is often easier to display using interactive exhibits) and biological exhibits including live animals. I hope Questacon will be attracting even more visitors and that we continue to change people's attitude to science and its place in all our lives. | 
