My particular area of expertise is the intersection of science/medicine, public policy and the law. My research focuses on the public communication of science/medicine and public health, and also communication to specialized audiences outside of science, including the use of science/medicine in the law. My publications have included a study of the communication and reception of the theory of continental drift, the childhood obesity epidemic, public health as wartime strategy, patient activism, alternative health, medicine and the US space program, the rhetoric of climate change, and the use of the law to communicate and advance health policy.

Laura Dawes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, who is devoted to the vibrant communication of science, medicine and the law to the general public. Her research, writing and teaching investigates the history of modern science and particularly the history of medicine and the law, with a focus on public outputs and engagement. She previously worked in the media, in print, radio and television, and was awarded the Wellcome Trust/Guardian Science Writing Prize and the ABC Best Half Hour of Local Radio. Her history and science documentaries have been broadcast on, for example, PBS, the History Channel, BBC, and Smithsonian Television. Laura regularly speaks and writes in the media and to the general community on a variety of medical, scientific and legal topics.

Dr Dawes's first book, CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN AMERICA: BIOGRAPHY OF AN EPIDEMIC, was published to wide acclaim in 2014. Her second book FIGHTING FIT: THE WARTIME BATTLE FOR BRITAIN’S HEALTH was shortllisted for ACT Book of the Year. Laura holds a PhD from Harvard University in History of Science, a Masters degree from Oxford University and a Bachelors degree in physics and mathematics from Murdoch University in Western Australia. She has received numerous awards, prizes and fellowships, including Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Academic Excellence, the Frank Gillespie Prize, the Ronald Searcy Prize, the Parnell O'Connor Prize for creative writing, and the Forbes Society award in Legal History.

• PhD(Harvard), MSc(Oxon), BSc(Hons) (Murdoch)
• Frank Knox Fellow (Harvard)
• Clarendon Fund Scholar (Oxford)
• Chevening Scholar (Oxford)
• Warren Centre Fellow (Harvard)
• Bicentennial Scholar (Australia)
• University Medal (Science) (Murdoch)

I am currently working on a book, "A Sunburnt Country", on the connection between sun and skin cancer, and public communication efforts in 20th and 21st century Australia.

I am also researching the introduction and communication of novel scientific evidence in the Australian legal system, studying Australia's first DNA case, the 1989 Applebee case. I have a subsidiary project on rhetoric and plain language use in the law.

Related to my long term interest in "cancer quackery" and the history of medical misinformation, I am investigating two historic cases in Australia - John Braund and Milan Brych.

I warmly invite students to contact me in regard to potential research projects concerning medicine, science and the law, and particularly those seeking to use archival sources or historical research methodologies. Examples of potential (and very exciting!) projects include:

* novel scientific evidence and the law

What are the weaknesses and strengths in the Australian legal system's approach to novel scientific evidence as illustrated in historical cases, such as the Chamberlain or Folbigg cases? 

* health and climate

What role did health factors play in motivating and shaping international action (the Montreal Protocol) with respect to the ozone hole and CFCs? Are there lessons that could be applied to contemporary issues of climate change and its health impacts?

* patient activism and disease

How have patient activists shaped disease control and treatment? What communication strategies and channels have they used to achieve these impacts?

I am currently co-supervising Rosie (Hoa) Dang's PhD project on childhood obesity in Viet Nam.