Communicating science

Researchers publish scientific papers in very specialized journals that are only read by experts in the field. These papers are usually very technical and complicated to understand for the general public. This is a shame because many people are keen to learn about the research going on in their community. In my opinion, it is important for researchers to be able to explain their research in a layman language accessible to most people. It is hard though... We are trained to be detail oriented, precise and rigorous, and simplifying complicated concepts by leaving out  some of the important details is no easy task. It takes training and practice.

I have been very fortunate be able to follow several great science communication workshops that help acquire these skills. One of them is the science communication workshop by COMPASS which was a game changer for me. It completely changed the way I thought about science communication and really helped when talking to the media. Another, great training was the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. It is a world-wide competition that challenges graduate students to present their research in just 180 seconds. The presentations must be engaging and understandable by people that have no background in the research area. So, no need to say that in 180 seconds, you don't have any time for complicated details... The competition itself is fun, but what was the most valuable was the training offered beforehand. Several professors from the University of Victoria gave us advice on how to talk in public and provided very useful feedback on how to improve our speech. If you are a graduate student, I highly recommend to participate. I would also highly recommend participating to Skype a Scientist, and/or Pint of Science, to practice your science communication skills. 

My 3MT presentation, entitled "This all sounds fishy...",  was about the Fish Sound Project. You can watch it here.