Scientists Get Training for Spotlight
W A R M S P R I N G S, Ore., July 6 -- Zoology professor Dee Boersma admits she is uncomfortable in the spotlight—not a good quality for scientists nowadays.
While it used to be that few college and university scientistswould be caught talking to anyone outside a laboratory orclassroom, now it is considered a scientist’s responsibility totalk to the public.
So Boersma joined 17 other prominent environmental scientists inOregon this month to attend the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program.
The program, operated by Oregon State University on behalf ofthe Ecological Society of America, offered the scientists advice onhow to talk to the media, to city councils, to Congress, to thepublic and to corporate boardrooms.
“We’re funded with public money,” said Boersma, who is aprofessor at the University of Washington. “We have a strongobligation to share knowledge obtained with public dollars. It’sunfortunate that we haven’t done it better.”
How to Dress for Television
The scientists spent eight days at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort learningsuch skills as how to lobby newspaper editors for an editorial andhow to deliver research results so business leaders understandthem.
Leopold fellows also learned not to expect the public to use orunderstand jargon and to never appear on television wearing stripesor plaid.
Businesses and local, state and federal policy-makers face suchcomplex issues as global warming, marine pollution and endangeredspecies. Increasingly, decision-makers and the media are reachingout to university scholars for information and solutions.
The program was thought of by Jane Lubchenco, a professor ofzoology at OSU, and a handful of colleagues who envisioned trainingthat could help environmental scientists better communicate withnonscientists.
They created the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, named for theman considered the father of wildlife ecology. The program receiveda $1.5 million grant in 1998, enough to train 60 scientists overthree years.
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