LISA
TONI
BURKE
HELLO!
I never thought, when I went down the route to study science, that I'd become a presenter, where the bulk of my work is linked to speaking and communication in one way or another, but such is the non-linear, unpredictable route of life! And happily so.
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What is true is that all of my passions, and hopefully strengths, have combined to give me great pleasure in all that I do: presenting, public speaking, science and music.
T.V.
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Lisa started working at Sky News directly after studying Natural Sciences as an undergrad and Masters student at Cambridge University. She remained there for ten years before moving to Abu Dhabi.
Sky News 2000-2010, London
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Lisa became a trained weather forecaster, working with Francis Wilson and Dr. Christopher England at Sky News, London. She went on to cover science, technology and news.
This was a decade of mostly live TV and special reports (Crime Week, Green Week, Iceland, America...). Lisa also presented for Sky News Ireland from its inauguration.
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Concurrently, Lisa developed and presented documentaries for other Sky channels (UK and America), worked for Sky Sports News, Sky One, Sky Movies and Sky Promos. She also wrote for The Times and The Sun.
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BBC, RTE (Ireland), Channel 4 (UK), Fox News (USA)
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Lisa has worked with all of these television companies as a presenter: travel shows for RTE across Australia; music events and more for the BBC (Lisa sang with the BBC Symphony Chorus for 15 years in London); documentaries, news reports, cookery shows, guest appearances, interviews, special reports, etc.
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RTL Today 2016 - today, Luxembourg
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Lisa moved to Luxembourg in August 2015 and was instrumental in creating RTL Today which launched in February 2017.
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Lisa retains her relationship with RTL as an independent presenter, reporter and interviewer. She launched their first podcast, In Conversation with Lisa Burke, in 2020. This developed into a weekend talkshow in 2021: The Lisa Burke Show, available to watch on RTL Play, on Today Radio and in podcast form on Apple and Spotify.
Other RTL work includes: RTL Reports , the Luxembourg Election Series 2018, and the British Ambassador to Luxembourg visits the east and north
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Public Speaking Club
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2021-2022 Trainer for students at the University of Luxembourg and MUDEC's (Miami University Dolibois European Center) Debating and Presenting Club.
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Whilst at Sky News, Lisa was voted the 'Sexiest weather girl of all time' by The Sun newspaper!
Video
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Lisa works on a variety of independent video reports including:
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Digital Ecosystem of Luxembourg for Digital Luxembourg, part of the Luxembourg Government
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Fondation Follereau Luxembourg Benin & Togo, December 2019.
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Chief of the declining Veddah community, Sri Lanka, summer 2019.
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Background
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Lisa grew up in Ireland until the age of ten, when her family moved to London. In Ireland, she lived in the village of Killeshin, Laois, where her father had been a Gaelic footballer (for Laois) and Pipe Major of Killeshin Pipe Band (national champions of Ireland). Through the constant support of their Kilkenny mother, Lisa and her siblings were encouraged to try anything they got the chance to do.
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Music
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Lisa started playing tin whistle like many children in Ireland, and added piano and piano accordian. When the family moved to London, Lisa kept up piano, and added singing and violin.
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Lisa has a licentiate with distinction from Trinity College London in Voice Performance, Premier Prix in singing from Conservatoire du Nord, Luxembourg and is half-way through her Superior exams. She also returned to piano playing in Abu Dhabi under Jordan Rashkov.
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Science
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Lisa chose to study sciences as she felt, with almost every other subject, one could restart later in life. At Cambridge University she studied chemistry, geology, physics and maths as part of the Natural Sciences Tripos. Lisa specialised in chemistry for her masters. She came second in her year and gained a double first. Despite securing PhD places, Lisa then took a gap year where she worked at the GlaxoSmithKline lab in the Cambridge Chemistry department, but during that same year got the chance to work at Sky News, where she remained for a decade.
Lisa's dedication and respect for science remains, especially to encourage females into STEM subjects and to inspire young minds. She remains an author and science consultant on many children's science books, working mostly with Dorling Kindersley, Penguin Random House publishing.
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Lisa has opened Science Week Ireland and given talks & demonstrations at the Cheltenham Science Festival, U.K.