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Kansas NSF EPSCoR Hosts NSF Communicating Science Workshop

More than 130 Kansas scientists and research communicators attended the Science: Becoming the Messenger workshop in Lawrence on Jan. 27. In addition, 20 selected researchers attended the workshop for a second day, on Jan. 28, to receive further training in communicating their science to broad audiences. The National Science Foundation plans to host this workshop in all 29 EPSCoR jurisdictions, with Kansas being the first.

Joe Schreiber with workshop participants

Chris Mooney, a journalist and blogger for Discover magazine, and Joe Schreiber, a television producer, taught the workshop. During afternoon breakout sessions, participants learned about blogging and using social media, and also produced short videos about their research.
Panel Members

Over lunch, a panel of journalists spoke with the participants about what they need to hear from scientists and research communicators when it is time to share the research story with the public. Serving on the panel were Meryl Lin McKean of WDAF Fox 4 TV in Kansas City; Bryan Thompson from Kansas Public Radio; Todd Cohen, director of University Relations at KU; and Jessica Schilling from the Lawrence Journal-World/social media division.

Left to right: Joe Schreiber, Chris Mooney, Kristin Bowman-James, Denise Barnes, Uma Venkateswaran, Tarri Joyner and Cindy Holloway

Mooney and Schreiber were accompanied by workshop planners Cindy Holloway and Tarri Joyner from the NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) office, and also Denise Barnes and Uma Venkateswaran from the NSF EPSCoR office.