ANU students are being encouraged to do a Science degree and run away to join the circus during O-week celebrations.

A 23-tonne Science Circus semi-trailer is visiting the campus on Wednesday 11 February to promote the ANU partnership with the Shell Questacon Science Circus program, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2015.

Members of the Science Circus are all graduates or current students of the ANU Master of Science Communication Outreach, run by the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science(CPAS).

Graham Walker, who graduated to the Science Circus in 2002, has built a career in communicating science to the public, often through his entertaining science demonstrations to schools.

“I came across the Science Circus just by chance and it’s sent me off on a tangent from the science research and labs path into the science communication area,” he says.

“It’s been a career that has been extremely fruitful.”

The bus' arrival on campus means the ANU community will have a chance to meet the 15 young recruits of the 2015 class - a group of smart scientists and talented performers, who will do their first show in Goulburn in March.

The Science Circus truck and science demonstrations, on Wednesday, are at the city end of University Ave.