Nature as Timekeeper

Dave Witty is an Australian writer raised in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of the 2021 Rosina Joy Buckman Award in The Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize, and his work appears in publications including Island, Griffith Review and Meanjin. What the Trees See is his first book.

Fiona McMillan-Webster is an award-winning science writer with a Bachelor of Science in physics and a PhD in biophysics. Her writing has been published by National Geographic, Forbes, COSMOS magazine, Australian Geographic and has also been included in several anthologies of The Best Australian Science Writing. Her first book, The Age of Seeds, was shortlisted for the 2023 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Prize and went on to win the People’s Choice Prize.

Satyajit Das is a former banker, recognised as one of world’s leading financial thinkers. He is the author of numerous technical books and Traders, Guns & Money, Extreme Money, Banquet of Consequences and Fortune’s Fool which examine intersections between money and society. He is co-author with his partner Jade Novakovic of In Search of the Pangolin. They have together seen many of the planet’s emblematic mammals, nearly half of all bird birds and more. 

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster, and documentary maker. She is host of ABC Radio National's flagship Big Ideas program, was founding host and producer of the blockbuster radio show and podcast All in the Mind for a decade, hosted the ABC's daily social affairs program Life Matters, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction, awarded Best Science and Medicine podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards. Natasha served as vice president and board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists and was recipient of a prestigious Knight Science Fellowship at MIT/Harvard. Her journalism has received numerous accolades, including the overall Grand Prize and four Gold World Medals at the New York Radio Festivals. She has facilitated many public forums around Australia, including four science dialogues with the Dalai Lama and guests. She has an engineering degree with first class honours and a postgraduate qualification in science communication.