Newsletter

May 18, 2023. With rhododendrons in full bloom, it’s hard to remember that this busy semester began in the cold month of January. But it did, and the semester was full of workshops, courses, visits and consultations, and more for Center for Communicating Science faculty and affiliates.

May 18, 2023. This semester we want to shine a spotlight on just some of the graduate student work related to communicating science that’s happening in our community. The students who take GRAD 5144, Communicating Science, go on to spearhead their own projects, facilitate workshops on behalf of the center, and engage in creative science outreach.

May 18, 2023. Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and currently at work on a book about the use of animals in research, visited Virginia Tech April 11. Joined by members of the Lacks family, she delivered the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science’s 2023 Hugh and Ethel Kelly Lecture, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and led a narrative nonfiction writing seminar for graduate students.

May 18, 2023. “Indigenous Knowledges are scientific, expert, and valid — and useful,” stated Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, keynote speaker for ComSciCon-Virginia Tech 2023. Recognizing the truth of that statement is key to antiracist science communication, she said.

May 18, 2023. ComSciCon, which began on February 6, encouraged students across disciplines to communicate their work in a more efficient and engaging manner. The Zoom format allowed Virginia Tech’s ComSciCon to host students from outside Blacksburg, including participants from as far away as California and India.

May 18, 2023. Cartoons aren’t just something you find in the Sunday funnies. Comics can also be an engaging way to tell the story of your research. Workshops facilitated by Cara Bean, Emmy Waldman, and Anna Feigenbaum introduced Virginia Tech students, faculty, and community members to data storytelling through comics.

May 18, 2023. The Center for Communicating Science (CCS) was joined by Amy Hubbard, professor and director of the communicology program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, during a planned visit the last week of March. Hubbard, who is currently on sabbatical, is visiting schools with oral communication and communicating science programs, and the VT CCS was the first stop on her tour.

May 18, 2023. What do quantum computers, harm reduction, and ovaries have in common? They were all subjects of our most recent Science on Tap events! Read here about speakers Frankie Edwards, Gretchen Matthews, and Camilla Hughes and get the Science on Tap schedule for summer and early fall.

Feb. 9, 2023. A kiddie car, a balloon suit, a hard hat, a bicycle, a potted plant, a personality test: not every Nutshell Games contestant used a prop, but every one of the 29 graduate student presenters did use their passion for their research to communicate with a supportive and enthusiastic audience of more than 250 community member. This year’s Nutshell Games, a science communication event featuring 90-second talks about a wide array of research topics, was judged by a panel of seven community and campus representatives who – as always – had a very tough time selecting just five winners.

Jan. 21, 2023. Please join us to learn 90 seconds’ worth of research about 30 very different topics at the Nutshell Games, a fun and fast-paced presentation competition! The mysteries of personality, the challenges of weight stigma, threats to bees, the safety of self-driving cars, hidden hellbenders, providing access to students with disabilities, battling disease, plover predators, carbon capture and storage, and more exciting topics will be presented by graduate students from nearly every college on campus.