ANU students who ran away with the circus over the past 30 years have met up to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Shell Questacon Science Circus, part of the ANU Graduate Diploma in Science Communication.

At a gala dinner, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young AO paid tribute to the long-running program and underlined to the 161 graduates the importance of the role they play.

"Without science communicators, essential ground-breaking research would not see the light of day or enter the imaginations of the general public," Professor Young said.

The Science Circus has reached over 2.2 million people and is the most travelled and longest-running program of its kind in the world.

It has travelled to nearly every small town in Australia, including 90 indigenous communities, and has inspired the creation of similar programs in more than 20 countries.

The travelling program came out of a small science museum started by ANU physicist Professor Michael Gore in 1980. It made its first trip with 10 student volunteers to Goulburn in 1985.

By 1990 the student participation had been formalised into a Masters program.

The academic environment evolved further with the arrival of science communication lecturer Professor Sue Stocklmayer and the formation at ANU of the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) in 1996.

The gala dinner also marked the retirement of Professor Stocklmayer, now Director of CPAS, a role she said was the best job in the world.

"It's fun. But important fun," Professor Stocklmayer told the dinner, which included the 2015 graduates of the Circus.

Incoming ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt sent a video message of support to the Science Circus program.

"I'm looking forward to working with the Science Circus, I'm sure it will have a long lifetime with many future generations of students," Professor Schmidt said