News

You’ll find news about the center and center events, book and webinar reviews, interviews with our faculty fellows, and more in the newsletter of the Center for Communicating Science.

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"Effective public-speaking techniques for university faculty," an essay by Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun, appeared in Times Higher Education April 15, 2024. "Few tools are more important to our survival, in my opinion, than the desire to see through someone else’s eyes," she begins. "The primary mechanism of that metaphysical sight is storytelling, which helps to generate empathy, that all-important feeling."

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Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors honored three faculty members with Alumni Distinguished Professor appointments at its spring meeting April 8-9, 2024. Among the three was Patty Raun, Center for Communicating Science director and professor of theater arts at the School of Performing Arts in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. According to the April 9 VTx News story, the honor recognizes "those who demonstrate extraordinary accomplishments and academic citizenship through substantive scholarly contributions across all three of Virginia Tech’s core mission areas of teaching, research or creative activity, and engagement." 

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Music professor Charles Nichols' piece "Carrying Capacity: II. The Vine That Ate the South" premiered at the College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Conference, held April 6-7, 2024, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The piece, commissioned by the Center for Communicating Science, illuminates the invasive plant species research of School of Plant & Environmental Sciences professor Jacob Barney.

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Congratulations to Communicating Science (GRAD 5144) "graduates" Abigail Lewis, Erin Nuckols, and Pallavi Rai and Nutshell Games winner Charis Tucker for being named Outstanding Doctoral Degree Students and to Nutshell Games participant Tanya Mitropoulos for her Outstanding Social Sciences, Business, Education, and Humanities (SSBEH) Dissertation Award. These and other student honors were announced in an April 4 VTx News story. 

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Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun was interviewed for a February 2, 2024, College of Natural Resources blog post, "Show them you care: XMNR faculty Patty Raun discusses her approach to communicating about complex topices." Check it out for a fun conversation about the work of the center!

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We were honored to have two Center for Communicating Science-related events make it to Virginia Tech's "Looking back: 23 things we learned and did in 23" list. Both our Dance Your PhD project and the second iteration of Flip the Fair, the graduate student-led outreach project in which elementary school students judge graduate student research posters, were featured on the year-end list of "23 things. . .that stood out this year." Thanks to center faculty fellow Rachel Rugh, who shepherded Dance Your PhD through its pilot year, and to the terrific team of graduate students who made Flip the Fair so much fun for 200 5th graders!

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An upcoming workshop in communicating science to be facilitated by center director Patty Raun for the Northeast Weed Science Society meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, was highlighted in the Weed Science Society of America newsletter December 19, 2023: "Northeastern Weed Science Society annual meeting to feature communication, harvest weed seed control sessions."

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The graduate student-organized outreach project Flip the Fair was highlighted in a November 14, 2023, Global Change Center website story "ICG Fellows Take Their 'Flip the Fair' Capstone from Project to Publication." We're so proud of this project team!

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The VTx News video "Communicating scientific research through dance" showcased the center's first foray into Dance Your PhD territory and included interviews with project leader and center faculty fellow Rachel Rugh and project participant Candy Beers. Much gratitude to both of them and all the other participants for their energy and creativity!

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So fun to see the November 11, 2023, Nutshell Games promoted through the VTx News daily email! "Research in a nutshell: Graduate students take the stage for a fast-paced presentation competition" got readers ready to cheer for the 27 contestants.

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Congratulations to the 2022 Flip the Fair team, who got a full report and assessment of their event published in the October 2023 issue of the Journal of STEM Outreach. Great work!

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With the Nutshell Games just around the corner (November 11!), we were delighted to see a story about the event in the BollyInside. Join us at the Moss Arts Center at 4:30 p.m. to hear 30 graduate students explain their research, each with a time limit of 90 seconds.

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Flip the Fair is back! Piloted by a group of enthusiastic graduate students in February of 2022, this flipped science fair features graduate students presenting research posters to elementary school-aged judges. The 2023 event, held on September 28 at Roanoke's Melrose Branch public library, is featured in a VTx news video and story. Many thanks to the many graduate students who brought this idea to life!

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It's nearly here! The pilot Faculty Nutshell Talks, featuring 16 Virginia Tech faculty members from six different colleges, University Libraries, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, will take place Thursday, September 7. Join us at 5:30 p.m. at the Moss Arts Center and read all about it in this VTx News story.

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Senior vice president and chief research and innovation officer Dan Sui shared his personal tips for effective communication and directed readers' attention to the resources offered by the Center for Communicating Science in an August 29, 2023, VTx News story. We appreciate Dan's support and suggestion that we pilot a Faculty Nutshell Talks event! 

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“I learned not only to write accurately and concisely, but also to write with respect, empathy, and a sliver of hope,” said Yezi Yang, one of the 2022 Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science (COVES) fellows. We're proud and delighted that Yezi and also Frankie Edwards, both Communicating Science (GRAD 5144) students, were 2022 COVES Fellows.

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Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun was honored to receive Virginia Tech's William E. Wine award, announced in a May 9, 2023, VTx News story. Recognized for their outstanding teaching, Wine award winners are automatically inducted into the Academy of Teaching Excellence. Congratulations, Patty!

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The wonderful outreach efforts of Communicating Science (GRAD 5144) "graduates" Samantha Brooks, Maddie Betts, and Thomas Bustamante were highlighted in a VTx news story that appeared May 4, 2023. One part of their work, the immersive art exhibit "The Underwater Wonders of Toms Creek," was on display at the Perspective Gallery in Squires Student Center from March 13 through May 10. 

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The Center for Educational Networks and Impacts (CENI) featured the collaboration between GRAD 51144 (Communicating Science) and the Hokie for a Day program with an April 21, 2023, CENI website and newsletter story, "Everyone is Learning."

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We had great fun working with 70 undergraduate students from Atlantic Coast Conference universities at the 2023 Meeting of the Minds conference, this year hosted by Virginia Tech. We facilitated a Communicating Across Differences workshop at the conference welcome dinner, helping students get to know one another and prepare for their sessions. You can read more about the conference in the VTx April 20 news story.

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Our center faculty fellow Vanessa Diaz was spotlighted in the psychology department's February 2023 newsletter with the story "Dr. Vanessa Diaz Named College of Science Inclusion and Diversity Fellow." Her work on our kindergarten science outreach project Girls Launch! and involvement in a center-sponsored SciArt collaboration project both were highlighted. 

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We're honored that the Graduate School commencement ceremony is now a few years in with featuring Nutshell Games-like student commencement talks. Can't wait to hear this fall's set of talks, by Ariel Heminger, Abdulaziz Alenezi, and Steve Gerus.

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It was a privilege to provide a short networking workshop and six graduate student speakers for this year's Research Summit for historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. Special thanks to Sara Richards, Mika Pagani, Jeff Thompson, Amy Hagen, Cody Swilley, Maria DeNunzio, and Korin Rex Jones for their participation.

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"Fulbright Program Brings 100 International Students to Virginia Tech" describes the Center's five years of engagement with the Cranwell International Center and the German-American Fulbright Commission, a perfect story for Virginia Tech's celebration of International Education Week.

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The August 29 Roanoke Times front page story, "Vineyards Ready as Grapevine Spreads Word About Spotted Lanternfly," featured Science on Tap speaker and Virginia Tech entomology department faculty member Doug Pfeiffer as well as a photo of the Rising Silo Brewery Science on Tap event. One tiny correction to the story: We had at least 40 people in attendance to learn about this invasive pest!

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A video clip from our August 24 Science on Tap, a presentation about the spotted lanternfly by entomology department faculty member Doug Pfeiffer and graduate student Jason Bielski, appeared in the Roanoke Times August 25, 2022. We appreciate help getting the word out on this pest of vineyards and other crops!

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Sara Richards, president of the graduate student Communicating Science club and a GRAD 5144 (Communicating Science) "graduate," appeared in a story about a welcome and orientation program for new graduate students. Sara represented the Center for Communicating Science, leading the new students in improv activities designed to get them introduced to one another and thinking about their goals.

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"How we collaborate: Nina Stark and Lynsey Wyatt" uses an interview format to explore the Center for Communicating Science-funded SciArt collaboration between a coastal engineer and an aerial artist. The April 27, 2022, VTx story is part of an ongoing series on collaboration from the Office of the Provost. 

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A March 11 (2022) VTx story announced our keynote speaker event with the headline "Author Elin Kelsey will anchor Communicating Science Week by making the case for hope in the face of climate change." We're holding onto this idea: "Feeling hope is not an acceptance of a bleak future, Kelsey says: 'Hope is not complacent. It is a powerful political act.'"

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"Students vie for prizes in the Nutshell Games on March 19" alerted the campus community to the return of the center's 90-second research talk competition to an in-person venue. A pandemic online event in 2020 was lots of fun and very successful--but we're glad to be back on stage at the Moss Arts Center! 

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"Speaker to bring message of climate hope to Blacksburg," said the New River Valley section of the Roanoke Times on March 6 (2022) in announcing the March 18 appearance of Communicating Science Week keynote speaker Elin Kelsey. The story included additional details about the week's events and activities.

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One of the SciArt collaborations sparked by the center's full-day "Collaboration Incubator" last May was covered in a VTx story March 1 (2022), "Intersecting science and art collaboration highlights invasive species research." Invasive species researcher Dr. Jacob Barney teamed up with artist and multimedia designer David Franusich to create projections drawing attention to locally invasive plants.

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A February 25 (2022) VTx story heralded the approach of Communicating Science Week and the 5th anniversary of the Center for Communicating Science. “Our work with Virginia Tech’s researchers and students brings us hope on a daily basis,” said center director Patty Raun. “To celebrate our fifth anniversary, we wanted to share this hope with our community by inviting Elin Kelsey, whose message of evidence-based hope will inspire us all.”

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"Science fair has a different twist: Elementary students judge grad student presenters" announced the February 10, 2022, Cardinal News--and it was the most-read story on the site the day it appeared.  We're so proud of the Flip the Fair committee, Abby Lewis, Amanda Hensley, Carla López Lloreda, Claudia Perez, Emma Bueren, Gates Palissery, Grace O’Malley, Heather Wander, and Sophie Drew, and all the graduate students who made this event such a success!

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On November 29, 2021, the Weed Science Society of America announced its upcoming regional section conferences, including the Northeastern Weed Society/Northeastern Plant, Pest, and Soils Conference. The combined conferences' 2022 theme is science communication,  and Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun will present “Connecting Across Difference: An Interactive Experience in Communicating Science to the Public.”  

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Graduate students planning Flip the Fair, an innovative science outreach project scheduled for February 2022, invited Center for Communicating Science faculty to provide a preparatory workshop November 5 (2021). Participants worked on making their research accessible to an audience of third through fifth graders.

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The Global Change Center newsletter helped spread the news about Communicating Science Week (March 16-22, 2022) and showcased their Interfaces of Global Change graduate students who have been Nutshell Games participants and winners.

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Center for Communicating Science faculty and Girls Launch! project graduate students presented the Girls Launch! kindergarten-science-video-making project at an Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology Playdate September 10 (2021; presentation available here) and again for Widening Inclusivity in the (Geo)Sciences November 3.

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Our new Center for Communicating Science logo, redesigned website, and support from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute all were announced in a VT News story April 30 (2021).

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Girls Launch!, a kindergarten outreach project sponsored by the Center for Communicating Science, was highlighted during the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology's Creativity and Innovation Day May 3 (2021) and in a VT News story announcing the event April 23. A short video presents the Girls Launch! project, and ten kindergarten-appropriate science videos and accompanying activity guides are available on the Center's YouTube channel.

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The March 2021 issue of the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts newsletter featured Virginia Tech/Floyd County Public Schools liaison Kim Keith's work with  the Center for Communicating Science kindergarten science video "Infections, Germs, and Immune Cells." Keith used the video, created by graduate student Udaya Sree Datla, along with an activity guide created by graduate student Kaitlin Read to construct a computer programming lesson plan.

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The December 1 (2020) VT News story "Re-imagining education, from COVID and beyond" featured the Center for Communicating Science's summer video project, in which 10 women graduate researchers created short videos related to their research. Available at the center's YouTube channel and appropriate for early elementary audiences, the videos grew from our kindergarten science visits project.

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The November 30, 2020, episode of the podcast Warm Regards includes an interview with Center for Communicating Science faculty fellow Daniel Bird Tobin. The episode, "Climate Data and Art, Part 2--World Without Ice and Daniel Bird Tobin," explores "immersive and embodied experiences of climate data."

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It's time for the Nutshell Games--and this year they'll be online! A story announcing the event and its transition to an online format appeared in the November 4, 2020, VT News. A welcome video will be available at 4 p.m. November 7, and the 90-second graduate student research presentation videos will go public at 4:30 p.m. on the Center for Communicating Science YouTube channel.

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The October 7, 2020, VT News Daily Video "Overcoming communication challenges in a COVID-19 world" features Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun, who donned a mask to demonstrate non-verbal cues and to talk about some of the communication challenges we're all facing right now.

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Our July 2020 Science on Tap event, "Celebrating Black Scientists," was featured in a WVTF Public Radio interview with New River Valley Bureau Chief Robbie Harris. “I think what’s plaguing people right now is, what do we do? How do we help?" said panelist and Virginia Tech graduate student Korin Jones about racial inequities in U.S. society. "A lot of people want some sort of big action that they can do that's going to solve this problem. But as we are working on that, we should consider the smaller things, like just acknowledging that Black people can be scientists is important.”

You can watch the event here.

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“Increasing the visibility of Black people in nature is important," Communicating Science student and ComSciCon-VA Tech 2020 participant Amber Wendler said in an interview for Backpacker Magazine. "It’s important for Black kids to see other people who look like them and know they belong.” Wendler started a Twitter account this spring to communicate her research. Through the Twitter community she helped organize Black Birders Week (May 31-June 6, 2020). Thanks, Amber! 

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Science on Tap's move to an online format in response to the coronavirus pandemic was featured in a May 4, 2020, VT News story. "Science on Tap NRV encourages fun and engaging science-related conversations, and right now our goal is to go full steam ahead as we’ve been doing," said Cassandra Hockman, one of Science on Tap's organizers and a Center for Communicating Science faculty fellow. "I think having and engaging in some form of community is really important right now."

That first online Science on Tap was an interview with virus transmission experts Linsey Marr and Kaisen Lin. You can watch the interview here.

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Ruoding Shi, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Virginia who earned her PhD at Virginia Tech, has published some of the results of her graduate research on American Scientist's Macroscope blog. "Heat, Illness, and Hope in Coal Country" tells in written form a story that Ruoding has shared as a participant in the Nutshell Games, a speaker for Science on Tap, and a student in GRAD 5144, Communicating Science.

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Center director Patricia Raun, Virginia Tech’s Executive Master of Natural Resources (XMNR) program, and recent program graduate Ryan Donner are featured in a Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability blog post. Raun helps XMNR students develop some of the same skills that center workshops and courses focus on: “Through much of my work with the students I stress the importance of storytelling and making personal connections with others.”

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ComSciCon-Va Tech 2020 was the subject of the March 9 VT News Daily video, with footage from the February 28 workshops and interviews with organizing commitee co-chair Susan Chen and "Your Research in a Nutshell" workshop co-facilitator Maddy Grupper. 

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VT News coverage of ComSciCon-Va Tech 2020 on March 6 included photos, videos, and a link to session summaries from the workshops, talks, and panels that made up the two days of learning about communicating science. More than 75 graduate and undergraduate students from Virginia Tech and beyond attended.

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Nutshell Games participant and Communicating Science course graduate Brittany Nackley won 2nd place in a competition sponsored by Macmillan Publishers. Her prize-winning essay describes the benefits of working outside one's comfort zone--including getting onstage to talk about one's research!

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VT News coverage of our ComSciCon-Va Tech 2020 keynote speaker Regina Nuzzo invited the campus and wider community to her talk, "Connecting 21st-Century Information to Stone-Age Brains: Numbers, Uncertainty, Surprise, and More," in which she discussed the five landmarks of effective "quant comm": numbers, evidence, uncertainty, surprise, and bringing it all back to the here and now.  The whole talk is available here.

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Last year's ComSciCon-Va Tech featured a writing workshop that led participant Samantha Jo Fried, then a Virginia Tech graduate student, on a journey resulting in an American Scientist story, "How Climate Science Could Lead to Action." Congratulations, Samantha! And thanks for sharing your research and ideas with the wider world.

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“I think people learn, truly learn, on a deep level when they’re able to find a personal connection to research,” said Center for Communicating Science faculty fellow Daniel Bird Tobin in a Yale Climate Connections interview. You may hear it when it airs on one of some 500 radio stations, but if you miss it you can play it at this Yale Climate Connections link.  

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"It is clear that the most urgent challenges facing human civilization are complex and interconnected—they could be thought of as one thing," said Center for Communicating Science director Patricia Raun in her Virginia Tech Graduate School commencement address December 20, 2019. "In order to address this challenge we must destroy the siloes that we've created. . .We must rebuild our abilities to connect, to collaborate, to listen." The entire speech is available here. 

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Professor of theatre arts and Center for Communicating Science director  Patricia Raun will deliver the keynote speech for the Virginia Tech Graduate School Commencement December 20, 2019. An announcement of commencement speakers, with links to more information about fall commencement ceremonies and celebrations, appeared in the VT News December 2.

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Seniors Reiss Gidner and Elijah Griles were profiled on Virginia Tech's School of Performing Arts website for their projects presented at the Animal and Poultry Science (APSc) Research Symposium fall semester 2019. Both double majors in theatre and APSc, Gidner and Griles focused on connection, relationship building, and communication in their projects, and Gidner collaborated with Center for Communicating Science faculty. Read "From Beaker to Speaker" for more information about their exciting work.

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It's time for the FOURTH Nutshell Games! Thirty courageous and excited graduate students from a wide variety of disciplines will share 90 seconds of their research with a public audience at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, November 16, at the Moss Arts Center, and this VT News story has lots of the details.

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Can you think of anything funny about climate change? How about the guy who got tired of dog poop in the neighborhood, invented a streetlamp powered by dog poop, and reduced our dependence on fossil fuel with his invention? Yale Climate Connections senior editor Sara Peach's September 2019 visit to campus was heralded by a WVTF interview with Robbie Harris. Peach was hosted by the Center for Communicating Science and other campus groups.

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Virginia Tech undergraduate student Taylan Tunckanat, who participated in our summer researcher communicating science pilot project, gave the Center for Communicating Science a nice shout-out in a research profile written by Fralin Life Science Institute communications assistant Kendall Daniels, published in the VT News August 27, 2019.

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"Communicating Across Disciplines: New Approaches for Applied Sciences" was the theme of the 2019 German Fulbright Summer Institute, our third year of a collaboration with Cranwell International Center. Some of the experiences of the 20 German undergraduate students who spent from July 26 through August 18 with us are captured in this VT News story.

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A grant awarded to the center by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) through its Undergraduate Research Faculty Grant Program was described in a VT News story June 21, 2019. The grant program, aimed at increasing student access to research opportunities, is providing us with the opportunity to develop a set of communicating science workshops for undergraduate summer researchers. 

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Our work to provide a set of communicating science workshops for summer undergraduate researchers was included in a June 17, 2019, VT News story about the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. The twenty SURF students, plus  

four students participating in bio-computational summer research and four undergraduate student peer mentors for the SURF program, are all participating in the communicating science workshops. 

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Center director Patty Raun and associate director Carrie Kroehler were presented the Alumni Award for Excellence in Team Outreach at the 2019 Faculty/Staff Awards event May 2. That team includes the center's steering committee, advisory board, faculty fellows, student interns, all the graduate students who have taken GRAD 5144 and participated in workshops, and many more collaborators.

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On March 12, 2019, center director Patty Raun facilitated a 4-hour workshop at the Entomological Society of America's Eastern Branch conference. Interested in her family connections to the study of insects--her father was an entomologist--Patty's contact with the ESA asked if he could talk to her about the work of the center. The resulting interview, "Why Empathy, Connection, and Confidence Are Critical for Science Communication," was published in Entomology Today.  

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The first-ever ComSciCon-Virginia Tech was held March 7 and 8, 2019. Organized by graduate students for graduate students, the event attracted nearly 70 registrants, allowed us to connect with University Libraries and the Center for Humanities, and provided lots of opportunities for participants to learn to communicate their research. VT News coverage included a video interview with event organizer Allison Hutchison. 

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2018 Nutshell Games winners Maddy Grupper, Susan Chen, and Brenen Wynd appeared in the VT News December 5: "Three graduate students take top prizes at the 2018 Nutshell Games." Congratulations to all our contestants and many thanks to our judges and audience! 

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An October 2018 VT News Daily preview story about the Nutshell Games--90-second research talks-- focused on the workshop that Center for Communicating Science faculty hosted for contestants.  “The boiling it down part is hard,” said workshop participant Allison Hutchison. “When I start to talk about my research, I get excited about it!”

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Roanoke Times reporter Robby Korth joined us at Rising Silo Brewery September 27, 2018, for our Science on Tap event featuring Erica Feuerbacher and her pal Iorek (let's be honest: Iorek was the star of the show!). Robby's story about Science on Tap appeared in the New River Valley section of the Roanoke Times Sunday, September 30. 

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The German Fulbright Summer Institute 2018, a collaboration among the Center for Communicating Science, the Cranwell International Center, and others at Virginia Tech, brought 24 students to campus to participate in "Communicating Science: Communication, Collaboration, and Connection Across Differences and Disciplines." The VT News Daily Video August 9 caught the students at one of their co-curricular site visits.  

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The August 2, 2018, VT News Daily Video was "The art of connecting across difference," a video featuring GRAD 5144, the graduate course in communicating science developed by Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun. "Everyone should take this class!" says student Sara Harrell. 

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Center for Communicating Science faculty facilitated a workshop for faculty visiting from Ecuador's Universidad San Francisco de Quito, part of a week-long 21st Century Faculty Initiative based on the Graduate School's Transformative Graduate Education Initiative. 

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"Earth's Premier Science Comedian" Brian Malow's visit to Virginia Tech was heralded by VT News and the Roanoke Times. Follow-up coverage of the panel discussion he moderated, "The Role of the University in an Era of Science Skepticism and 'Fake News,'" appeared in the Virginia section of the Roanoke Times. 

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Our 2018 spring workshop series, featuring weekly workshops on a variety of topics and with seven workshop facilitators helping lead them, was announced through VT News.

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The second annual Nutshell Games, held in conjunction with the Virginia Tech Science Festival, got advance coverage from VT News. Nutshell Games competitor Carrie Jensen's talk on Appalachian headwaters was picked up for the December 4, 2017, episode of Virginia Water Radio.

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A three-week German Fulbright Summer Institute, hosted by the Cranwell International Center, provided 24 German undergraduate students with academic coursework from the Center for Communicating Science and from the Language and Culture Institute. VT News photos, video, and story are available here and a Virginia Public Radio story here.

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Nutshell Games contestant Max Ragozzino's talk on ash trees and the emerald ash borer appeared on the July 10, 2017, episode of Virginia Water Radio; you can listen to the full episode here.

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Twenty-eight graduate students gave 90-second research talks March 2 in the first annual Nutshell Games, the highlight of our center-opening celebration. Roanoke Times coverage of the event can be found here. 

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University relations coverage in advance of our center-opening events March 2, 2017, can be found here.

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Fifteen faculty members from Ecuador’s Universidad San Francisco de Quito engaged in theater improvisation exercises with us in July of 2016 as part of the 21st Century Faculty Initiative, a joint venture between the Graduate School and Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). You can read more about the experience here.

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In the spring of 2015, Graduate School communications manager Cathy Grimes visited our Communicating Science graduate class, observed, talked to students, and wrote a Virginia Tech news story, which you can read here.

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In the fall of 2015 Kendall Livick, from the Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED), visited the Communicating Science graduate course to participate and learn more about the approach. She reported on her experience in a OIRED blog post.

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Fralin Life Science Institute communications correspondent Cassandra Hockman attended the 2015 summer institute at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. You can read about her experience here.

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In the fall of 2015, trainers from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science visited Virginia Tech's campus to conduct a workshop for Global Change Center graduate students. You can read about the workshop here.