Vanessa Hill (born 3 March 1987) is an Australian television presenter, producer and

science communicator Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

, who is best known for her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

series

BrainCraft ''BrainCraft'' is an educational video series on YouTube created by Australian science communicator Vanessa Hill. Hill's videos use stop motion and paper craft animation to explain neuroscience, psychology and human behavior. ''BrainCraft'' is par ...

. Hill has hosted a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series of the same name since 2014.

Early life and education

Hill was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and developed her interest in science while walking dingoes around

Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo is a zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the suburb of Mosman, on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The opening hours are between 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning 'beautiful water view'. It ...

. In 2008, Hill graduated from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

with a Bachelor of Science and then completed a Master of Science Communication at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

Career

In 2008 Hill began working for

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

, a federal government agency for scientific research as an educator. In 2013 she won the CSIRO medal for excellence and hosted a series on DIY Experiments for the agency. In 2014, Hill was hired by PBS after presenting her idea for ''BrainCraft'' as a stop-motion science series. She further collaborated with PBS and

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

in 2017 to direct and host ''Mutant Menu,'' a global exploration of new gene editing technology that was PBS Digital Studio's first long-form documentary, and in 2018 for ''Attention Wars,'' an online exploration of the behavioral psychology behind social media. Hill is a host of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

series ''Sciencey'' and appears as a regular guest on ABC Radio,

Dear Hank & John ''Dear Hank & John'' is a podcast hosted by the Green brothers: musician and author Hank Green and young-adult novelist John Green. The podcast is produced by Rosianna Halse Rojas and edited by Josef "Tuna" Metesh. First released in June 2015, ...

, DNews and

SciShow ''SciShow'' is a collection of YouTube channels that focuses on science news. The program is hosted by Hank Green along with a rotating cast of co-hosts. ''SciShow'' was launched as an original channel. The series has been consistently releasing ...

. In 2019, Hill was announced as a AAAS Women in STEM ambassador.

YouTube

Hill created her YouTube channel ''BrainCraft'' in 2014 has 600,000 subscribers. ''BrainCraft'' is part of the PBS Digital Studios network. Her videos address phenomena related to memory, sleep, brain hacks, and the science of food. Hill has been outspoken about the hateful comments directed towards women on YouTube. In 2018, Hill was featured in ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reports about new research that found women on YouTube receive a higher proportion of critical comments about their appearances. She also hosted the Crash Course Public Health series on YouTube.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Vanessa 1987 births Science communicators Living people Australian television personalities Women television personalities Australian YouTubers