Samantha Nixon

Samantha is a former arachnophobe, turned venoms scientist and spider advocate at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. Her research harnesses the unique chemistries in venoms for drug discovery. Samantha is an avid explorer and conservationist, working around the world from the Amazon to the Antarctic. She is a passionate advocate for addressing inequality in STEM, education and leadership through science communication and hopes sharing her passion for spiders will help inspire the next-generation of Australian scientists.

Samantha has been recognised with the Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship, the 2020 Queensland Women in STEM Prize, the 2020 Women in Technology Young Science Achiever Award, the 2021 FameLab International Runner-Up prize for excellence in science communication, and the 2020 Green Talent Award from the German Ministry of Education and Research, recognising her as one of the top 25 young leaders in science for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals worldwide.

Samantha Nixon appears with thanks to Academic Partner The University of Queensland.