Google creates 21 science communications fellows
Professor Andrew Dessler, one of Google’s new ‘science communication fellows,’ goes up against sceptic scientist Richard Lindzen.
Calls for scientists to speak out about their work and counter misinformation in the public debate have been growing in frequency recently.
Sir Paul Nurse, head of the Royal Society, argued on BBC’s Horizon that
“Earning trust means more than just focusing on the science. We have to communicate it effectively too. Scientists have got to get out there; they have to be open about everything that they doâ?¦This is far too important to be left to the polemecists and commentators in the media. Scientists have to be there too.”
Now Google was waded into the fray, with the announcement of 21 new “science communication fellows”. The fellows were elected from a pool of post-PhD scientists from institutions all over the USA, who work on climate change research and are early to mid-career.
The company says that this is just a first step in its new effort to “foster a more open, transparent and accessible scientific dialogue”. Their initiative is “aimed at inspiring pioneering use of technology, new media and computational thinking in the communication of science to diverse audiences.”
Google has chosen to focus on scientists “who had the strongest possible potential to become excellent communicators”, referring to their list as an “impressive bunch”.
The fellows include scientists with expertise in climate modelling and atmospheric dynamics, paleoclimatology and paleoceanography, the effects of climate change on marine organisms and on crop yields and food security, civil and environmental engineering as well as climate policy experts who have advised the US Government.
The fellows will participate in a workshop at Google’s famous headquarters in Mountain View, California in June this year, where they will receive “integrated hands-on training” and brainstorm topics around technology and science communication.
Then they will be given the opportunity to apply for grants to put the ideas into practice. The fellows judged to have created the project with the most impact will take a Lindblad Expeditions & National Geographic trip to the Arctic, the Galapagos or Antarctica as a science communicator.
The initiative is headed up by Dr. Amy Luers, environment programme manager of Google.org and Tina Ornduff of Google Education. Google.org is part of Google’s philanthropic wing.
The organisation was established in 2006 with a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and climate change and has now given out more than $100 million. A revamp in 2009 led it to refocus on the technical contributions it can make and further away from simple grant making. The company said at the time that:
“â?¦our greatest impact has come when we’ve attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google’s strengths in technology and information.”
It will be interesting to see what the technological might of Google, combined with some fine scientific minds, can bring to the debate around climate science.