This is a guest post by Chris Faesi, a graduate student at Harvard, on behalf of the organizers of the conference described below.
To address the need for training in communication skills, and to enable future scientists to become ambassadors for their work and for science generally, members of the Astrobites and Chembites community are organizing a science communication workshop – and all graduate students at US institutions in any field of science and engineering are invited to apply to attend by this Friday, March 1!
The Communicating Science 2013 workshop will be held in Cambridge, MA, June 13-15 2013. This interdisciplinary workshop will give participants the chance to hear from expert communicators including journalists, press officers, educators, and authors about how they express complex ideas to their peers, experts in other fields, and the general public. More than 20 such expert panelists will be in attendance, including Emily Lakdawalla, Alyssa Goodman, Marcia Bartusiak, Kelle Cruz, David Aguilar, Christine Pulliam, and Rick Fienberg. Workshop participants will also produce an original written piece and interact directly with these professional science communicators to receive feedback. Additionally, there will be a technical session on the last day of the workshop for graduate student communicators from around the country to interact with each other and spawn new communication projects. To learn more about the panel discussions and activities planned for the workshop, visit the workshop website and see the flyer below.
Due to space and logistical concerns, participation will be limited to 50 students, 20 local and 30 out-of-state. There is funding available to support travel and accommodations for all out-of-state participants. Selection will be made based on a competitive application process. The application form is here, and the deadline is March 1. Successful applicants will be notified several weeks after the deadline.
For those of you with connections to graduate students, please help spread the word to potential applicants in your departments by passing on the flyer.