**Please be aware that photography and/or filming may be taking place during this event.

Images and footage may be used for promotional purposes, including on our website, social media, and in future marketing materials.
By attending, you consent to your image being used in this way.

If you would prefer not to be photographed or filmed, please speak to a member of staff at the registration desk**


Once upon a time, a hand-drawn sketch of the outlines of South America and Africa was all it took to make a compelling scientific statement: hey, don’t these two continents look like they broke apart from each other? Plate tectonics was in its infancy, data were scarce, and ideas were still forming. Fast forward to today, and we have decades of research, complex datasets, and sophisticated methods—and our science figures are starting to suffer under the weight of everything, everywhere, all at once.

In this talk, Dr. Lucía Pérez-Díaz explores how the role of graphics in science is evolving, and where it may have gone astray. Drawing (pun intended) on her perspective as a geoscientist and author-illustrator, she examines how our figures may be falling short—failing not just to communicate clearly, but to spark curiosity.
This matters more than ever, as science increasingly needs to reach beyond specialist circles and into communities that may meet it with indifference—or even distrust.

When designing scientific figures, accuracy is important – but so is empathy. Our visuals need to offer viewers a way in, a path to follow, and a clear destination. We need to think not only about what audiences can understand, but what they’ll choose to engage with. From nostalgic 19th-century cross-sections to googly-eyed data plots, this talk invites us to rethink how we draw science—and how we draw people in. Bring a pencil, no better time to start than now.

Programme

This Public Lecture will take place on Tuesday 26 August at 18:00 (BST).

This is a hybrid event, which can be attended in person at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, or online via Zoom.

17:30–18:00: Guests arrive for the Public Lecture

18:00–19:00: Talk takes place (including Q&A)

19:00–20:00: Drinks reception in the Lower Library

20:00: Event ends

Speaker

Dr Lucía Pérez-Díaz - Earth Scientist and author-illustrator
Dr. Lucia Perez-Diaz is a computational geoscientist and author-illustrator from Galicia, in northern Spain (although currently based in Oxford, UK). In her scientific work, she creates computer models of large-scale geological processes like the break-up of continents and formation and evolution of oceans (which are, in turn, used to learn about the direct impact of these events on the evolution of life and climate on Earth). Lucia's interest in scientific communication started during her PhD, when she began experimenting with art and illustration as means to open up scientific discovery to young minds. She has recently published her first children's book, and often runs workshops for scientists where she teaches participants on the power of graphics as a tool to communicate knowledge both inside and outside specialist circles.