Science Communication Series

We invite you to attend the 2020 Science Communication Series, co-sponsored with TIBBS and the Science Writing and Communication Club (SWAC). To earn a certificate of completion to recognize your participation in the series, attend one workshop plus any three SCS “elective” events.

*Reminder: Sessions 1 & 2 are workshops – you need to attend ONE of these AND submit a piece developed using skills gained from the respective workshop to complete the series requirements. Instructions for submission will be given at each workshop, and can be submitted any time throughout the series (no later than May 1, 2020).

Note: Some alternative events may be substituted by request, including specific relevant or pre-approved SPAG Spring Series events or ComSciCon Triangle. Contact rcherney@email.unc.edu with any questions!

*Session 1: Career Blog Workshop with Brian Rybarczyk, PhD, UNC – January 15 @ 10a-11a (Assignment: Career Blog post for TIBBS Career Blog)*

Career Blogs: How to research organizations of interest, make most of informational interviews, and do reflective writing

Description: Awareness of one’s strengths and skills and how to relate those to an advertised position are keys to a successful career. This workshop will provide guidance for how to research an organization of interest and make the most of informational interviews.

As a higher education administrator, Brian manages a range of professional development opportunities for graduate students as part of the Graduate School Professional Development program and manages UNC’s Graduate Student Center. He is also the Director of the Preparing International Teaching Assistant’s Program (PITAP) and co-administrative leader for the national network Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL). In addition, he is the Associate Director of the Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research and Education (SPIRE) program which balances both research and teaching experiences and interactions with four minority-serving institutions in North Carolina.

Register: http://tinyurl.com/y23s85at

*Session 2: Share your Science Communication Strategies for Public Audiences with Daun Daemon, MA, & Elizabeth Wagner, PhD, NC State – Feb 12 @1-2:30p (Assignment: Turn your scientific abstract into a blog post)*

Description: The presenters will discuss effective strategies for adapting complex scientific material to various public audiences, including the general public, policymakers, and members of the media. Workshop attendees will then practice adapting a scientific text for a broader audience and will receive hands-on feedback from the facilitators. Come and learn how to make your science more meaningful to those without a technical background!

Daun Daemon, MA, has taught scientific communication at NC State University for more than 18 years. In addition to her degrees in English, she also holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. She has worked as a communications specialist for both the NC State College of Engineering and NC Sea Grant, and she has edited educational and scientific documents as a freelancer.

Elizabeth Wagner, PhD, teaches scientific communication at NC State University. She honed her science writing skills as a medical writing specialist in the pharmaceutical industry, working closely with clinical teams to prepare conference presentations, journal articles, and regulatory documents.

Register: http://tinyurl.com/sfdtu9q

Session 3: When Science Meets Writing: What is a Medical Writer with Deirdre Rodeberg, PhD & Todd Parker, PhD, MedThink SciCom – March 9 @ 1-2:30p

Description: Do you like science? Do you like writing? Do you think you’d enjoy a career doing both? If so, you might be a medical writer! Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited to join MedThink SciCom, a Cary-based medical communications agency, to learn more about medical writing and to practice the skills necessary for this role. We will first discuss the everyday life of a medical writer and the skills necessary to succeed in this role, and then will give participants the opportunity to live-workshop key medical writing skills.

As a Medical Writer at MedThink SciCom, Dee is responsible for developing scientific content, including peer-reviewed manuscripts, publication summaries, abstracts, posters, slide presentations, and strategic documents. She has 4 years of medical and scientific writing experience. Dee’s therapeutic areas of expertise include neurology (neurobiology, addiction and related disorders), obesity, and inflammation (including psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease). Dee earned an MA and a PhD in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and a BA in Neuroscience from Middlebury College. At UNC, Dee was a Vice President and Chief Editor of SWAC and served on the organizing committee for ComSciCon-Triangle for 2 years (among other science communication events).

As VP, Managing Director for MedThink SciCom, Todd is responsible for financial management and business planning; oversight of team growth and staff development; and establishment and maintenance of procedure, performance, and quality standards. Todd has over 15 years of medical communications agency experience overseeing scientific strategy (eg, scientific platforms, disease-state education plans, publication planning). Before he joined MedThink SciCom, Todd worked at a medical communications company in the Midwest, where he provided scientific direction for multiple products in the oncology space. Todd earned his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Mississippi State University and completed his postdoctoral research at Ohio University.

Register: http://tinyurl.com/vgdkxas

Session 4: Empathy in Science Communication with Reyhaneh Maktoufi, PhD, NOVA/WGBH – NEW DATE – July 14 @5:30p-7p

Description: In the Empathetic SciComm workshop, attendees discuss empathetic communication skills, practice those skills, and see examples of such modes of communication, based on the work of professional female science communication researchers and practitioners.

We will work on the 5 main steps needed for more empathetic science communication: listening, observing, relating, replacing, and reaching out. For each step, we will discuss the concept, think of examples, and learn by doing! We will also discuss how to apply these skills, especially when talking about controversial science topics such as climate change or flat earth.

These topics are complemented by the work of researchers and communicators including Dr. Dominique Brossard and Dr. Asheley Landrum, Dr. Mónica Feliú-Mójer, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe.

Reyhaneh Maktoufi is a Ph.D. candidate in Media, Technology, and Society at Northwestern University and a Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellow at NOVA. Her main fields of interest are science communication, curiosity, and public engagement with scientists. She was a visiting researcher at the Adler Planetarium, where she studied science communication and facilitated workshops on communication skills and she’s also a producer at The Story Collider podcast. Before starting a Ph.D., Rey has been working as a health communication facilitator and cancer preventive/palliative care campaign manager in Tehran, Iran. Rey currently enjoys working with different nonprofits such as the Communicating Science Conference (ComSciCon). She also engages in science outreach through writing blog-posts and making science comics.

Register: http://tinyurl.com/y87mbln4

Session 5: A kaleidoscopic approach to designing effective science communication strategies with Efra Rivera-Serrano, PhD, UNC and Founder of Unique Scientists – POSTPONED

Description: Most scientists lack training outside their respective fields of study – including principles of communication – which often hinders the confidence and skills required to effectively share their ideas to broader audiences. How can we, as scientists, re-wire our preconceptions about social sciences to better understand and predict effective rhetorical communication strategies? One key principle lies in the intrinsic passion for a series of highly specialized topics that we all have and can exploit to generate communication approaches that can, in turn, shape our unique communication style. Efra will present ways to maximize our reach, solve problems, and even develop our own ‘SciComm brand’ by glancing at communication through the lens of specific disciplines.

Efra is a cell biologist interested in how eukaryotic cells respond to viral infections. He is originally from Puerto Rico, where he completed his undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in plant biology studying protein movement in plant cells and later a Ph.D. in comparative biomedical sciences where he focused on studying viral infections in the heart, both degrees from North Carolina State University. His most recent postdoctoral training was completed at University of California, Davis developing platforms to identify cellular factors important for viral replication. Prior to that, he completed a two-year postdoctoral scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has recently returned as a Research Associate Professor, studying hepatitis A virus infections in liver cells.

Outside of the laboratory, Efra is a science communicator and uses the beauty of microscopy to introduce scientific research and teach complex biological systems to the community through social media. Efra is passionate about promoting diversity and an advocate for inclusion and equity. He is the founder of #UniqueScientists (https://uniquescientists.com), a program that focuses on celebrating diversity in STEM by sharing the journey of diverse scientists worldwide and what makes them unique.

Register: POSTPONED