Tag: scicom

Meet the WiSE woman behind the SciComm Symposium

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From roaming through Montana while dabbling in documentary filmmaking to singing and writing science-y songs in a two-man band with her husband Derek, Tess Eidem is not your typical postdoctoral fellow. The energetic, permanently good natured and fascinatingly organized Eidem has a passion for communicating science in unique ways and a knack for bringing like-minded people together.

One of Eidem’s many passion projects includes the annual Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Science Communication (SciComm) Symposium. Eidem started the Symposium to help bridge the disconnect between researchers and the general public. And, she wanted to equip young scientists with the skills to easily communicate their work with other people.

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Science communication lessons from Dr. Julie Gerberding, first woman to head the CDC

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In our increasingly globalized world, the consequences of climate change and pandemics are far-reaching while vaccine hesitancy, climate skepticism, and the Trump administration’s science and energy policies threaten to block efforts toward finding solutions.

Halfway through its first week, the Trump administration froze the Environmental Protection Agency’s grants and contracts, issued a gag order on public communication, and ordered the agency to remove climate change from its website. Now more than ever, there is a need for individuals who can engage the deeply partisan public in scientific issues, in ways that foster interest and excitement while helping to weed out fear mongering and misinformation.

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An open letter to a country disillusioned with science

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chasm with people crop

It’s almost midnight, and I’m still in lab.

Even on a long day like this, when I’m trying to get an experiment to work for the third day in a row, I love what I do. But it’s hard. And with the constant barrage of social media opinions about how vaccinations are hurting our children, or how climate change is a hoax, I often feel that my passion doesn’t fit into this world—a place where science has a tendency to be unappreciated, mistrusted, or even hated.

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