The Girls’ Day on the fourth Thursday in April is an initiative that started in 2006. Every year, many national institutions participate with a range of programmes. “The Girls’ Day is a wonderful opportunity to encourage girls to develop their talents and creativity in a wide variety of fields, honing them for professional use later on. Given that science, research and technology are becoming ever more important in our society, I consider it vital to see many women represented in these fields. We can achieve this by encouraging and inspiring girls in events like the one today and by offering them every support,” notes Federal Minister Polaschek in talking about the significance of this year’s Girls’ Day at the NHM Vienna.
“The Natural History Museum is delighted to once again take part in this initiative by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science (BMBWF). We see it as our contribution to encouraging young women to explore new professional fields in science and research. Contacts between girl students and female staff members of the museum create an inspiring dialogue between science and society for our institution,” says Director General Katrin Vohland about Girls’ Day.

Not only an inspiring venue of diversity, the NHM Vienna also represents a unique research cosmos. Around 60 scientists conduct research on all aspects of the natural world. But what exactly is happening behind the scenes? What sort of research is done on the collections, and why is the resulting knowledge so important for the future of our planet? How can one get involved in this research? What does the NHM Vienna do to ensure successful science communication?

“These were questions that interested girls were able to explore in the context of an exciting hands-on programme on Deck 50, the NHM’s multi-dimensional space for science communication,” said Ines Méhu-Blantar, who is in charge of Deck 50 at the NHM Vienna.

After a lively welcome, that also included a quiz, it was time to “Meet a Scientist”: Nesrine Akkari, an expert on centipedes shared her own career story with the visitors and showed many fascinating images of her work as a researcher and curator. In the lab of Deck 50, the visitors took a close look at some fascinating insects with Dominique Zimmermann, who does research on bees and wasps: the specimens ranged from scintillating bees that mix their own perfume to the insect with the most painful sting of all.
The “Flutter Lab” was an opportunity to marvel at the diversity of local butterflies. NHM researcher Sabine Gaal-Haszler presented an intriguing selection of specimens from the museum’s butterfly collection.

A guided tour through the non-public areas where a large part of the biological collections are stored, gave the young visitors the opportunity to see the NHM Vienna’s “archives of knowledge” – a unique opportunity that was created specifically for the Girls’ Day participants. In the process they learned why these collections are so important for future life on our planet.
The morning ended with a visit to the current special exhibition “Brazil”, where the exhibition specialist Julia Landsiedl explained why design and emotions are vital ingredients of exhibitions and science communication.