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January 22 - Science on Tap New River Valley: Soil Secrets: What's Happening Beneathe Your Feet? Join us at Rising Silo Brewery to hear from education and outreach specialist Summer Thomas from the Virginia Soil Health Coalition about the precious resource right under our feet!  5:30 p.m. at Rising Silo Brewery, 2351 Glade Road, Blacksburg. Free and open to the public. 

March 5 - Faculty Nutshell Talks! Get ready for a fast-paced evening of ideas, storytelling, and discovery! At the Faculty Nutshell Talks, Virginia Tech faculty take the stage to share their research in just 90 seconds—no slides, no jargon, just clear, compelling stories designed for a public audience. 4:30 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. Free and open to the public. Participant registration opens January 6.

March 16 - "Distilling Your Message for Teaching and Outreach: Brief and Compelling Interactions with the People You Need to Talk to," an online CETL/CIRTL/TLOS workshop. In this interactive and experiential learning-based workshop facilitated by faculty from Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science, participants will build their communication skills through engaging in exercises that help them move from “information overload” to engaging, clear, and simple communication. Registration coming.

You can read about these events on our events page, and, for a more in-depth view at some of the Center for Communicating Science's latest activities, read our newsletter.

Here's some of what we've been up to recently:

11/20/2025 - Science on Tap New River Valley  (Rachel Reid: The Prospects of Poop: What can bat guano tell us about past environments in Virginia?)

11/18/2025 - Distilling Your Message (workshop for Virginia Tech Writers and Editors meeting) 

11/15/2025 - Flip the Fair at the Science Festival, Center for the Arts.

11/14/2025 - Introduction to Improvisation for Science Communication (workshop for Professional Skills in Natural Resources course)

10/30/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Palash Sashittal: The Ancestry of Cancer: Tracing How Cancer Evolves)

10/23/2025 — Nutshell Games, Virginia Tech's Center for the Arts. 

9/25/2025 — Flip the Fair, Melrose Branch, Roanoke Public Libraries

9/25/2025 - Science on Tap New River Valley (Ainul Huda, Shining a Light on the Brain: Guiding Animal Behavior Using Light)

10/8/2025 - Eight Years of Community-Centered Science Outreach: Lessons from Science on Tap, The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. Part of the 2025 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference.

10/9/2025 - Wellness Begins with ‘We:’ Trust in Pandemic Prediction & Prevention Panel Discussion, The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. Part of the 2025 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference.

8/28/2025  — Science on Tap, New River Valley (Alasdair Cohen: Safe Drinking Water Access in Rural Regions: Progress and Pitfalls)

8/21/2025 Communicating Science workshop for computer science faculty and staff

7/31/2025 Pandemic Science in a Nutshell Games, Alexandria, Virginia

7/24/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Prescott Vayda: How do we place early animal fossils on the tree of life?)

7/22/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

7/16/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

7/15/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

7/14/2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows workshop

7/9/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

7/8/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

7/2/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

7/1/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

6/26/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Kevin Kochersberger: From the Wright Brothers to Advanced Air Mobility: 122 Years of Flight) 

6/25/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

6/24/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

6/23/2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows workshop

6/21/2025 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer program staff workshop

6/18/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

6/17/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

6/14/2025 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer program staff workshop

6/13/2025 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer program staff workshop

6/11/2025 Communicating Science Series workshop for COMPASS Center (Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies) faculty

6/10/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

6/9/2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows workshop

6/3/2025 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program: Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER) workshop

5/19/2025 Whole Health Consortium 's "Whole Health, Whole Communities" symposium, Roanoke, Virginia (World Cafe facilitation)

5/13/2025 Communicating science faculty intensive

5/7/2025 Communicating science all-conference workshop, Southeastern Sustainability Directors Network annual meeting, Richmond, Virginia

4/24/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Karyn Schy, Briann Brown, Jack Browning, Alana Hutchinson, and Alexis Mann: Neuroscience Night)

4/14/2025 "Distilling Your Message for Teaching and Outreach: Brief and Compelling Interactions with the People You Need to Talk to," an online CETL/CIRTL/TLOS workshop 

4/3/2025 "Science on Tap New River Valley: A Successful Outreach Program Since 2017," poster presentation at Science Talk '25, Maria DeNunzio and Amy Hagen

3/27/2025 "Building a Communicating Science Ecosystem at a Land Grant University: Sharing Lessons." Panel discussion at Science Talk '25

3/27/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Brogan Holcombe: Fitbits for black bears in Virginia?)

3/24/2025 "Improv Skills for Science Communicators." Workshop at Science Talk '25 facilitated by Jon Catherwood-Ginn, online format.

3/5/2025 "Picture a Scientist" and "Reel Talk" panel discussion with Virginia Tech faculty and students about the status of women in the STEM professions

3/4/2025 The Faculty Nutshell Talks!  

3/3/2025 Faculty Nutshell Talks preparatory workshop, Part 2

2/28/2025  Fralin Fridays, hosted by the Center for Communicating Science

2/27/2025 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Noel Naughton: How does an octopus control its arms?) 

2/14/2025 Tailor Your Message to Your Audience (workshop for Science Outreach course)

2/7/2025 Cultivating Science Communicator Identities (ICAT Playdate)

2/4/2025 The Art of Communicating Science (Virginia Cooperative Extension winter conference workshop)

1/31/2025 Faculty Nutshell Talks preparatory workshop

1/23 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Maria DeNunzio: Food for Thought: How Retail Spaces Shape Our Choices and the Planet)

1/23/2025 Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn (workshop for honors course on developing assistive technologies)