“What is the Science of Science Communication? What Should it Be?”

Panelists: 

• Moderator: Dan M. Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology, Yale Law School
• Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication and Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
• Sarah Smaga, PhD candidate, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University
• Carl Zimmer, New York Times Science Columnist and Professor Adjunct, Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University

Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School. His primary research interests (for the moment, anyway) are risk perception, science communication, and the application of decision science to law and policymaking. He is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project, an interdisciplinary team of scholars who use empirical methods to examine the impact of group values on perceptions of risk and related facts. In studies funded by the National Science Foundation, his research has investigated public disagreement over climate change, public reactions to emerging technologies, and conflicting public impressions of scientific consensus. Current work of the Project is centered on integrating the methods of the science of science communication into the tool kits of professional communicators in diverse contexts ranging from local democratic decisionmaking to science-documentary filmmaking. He is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Annenberg Public Policy Center. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the International Communication Association. Her award-winning books include Packaging the Presidency, Eloquence in an Electronic Age, Spiral of Cynicism (with Joseph Cappella), and The Obama Victory (with Kate Kenski and Bruce Hardy).

Sarah Smaga is a 6th year PhD student in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. Her research explores how the human antiviral factor MxB targets HIV. Outside the lab, Sarah is active in science communication, outreach and advocacy. She served as co-president of the Yale Science Diplomats from 2016-2018. Sarah is a graduate of Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University.

Carl Zimmer is a New York Times columnist and the author of 13 books about science. He graduated from Yale in 1987 and began his journalism career at Discover, where he served for four years as a senior editor. Since then, he has written hundreds of articles for magazines such as National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Wired, and has frequently contributed to Radiolab. Zimmer began writing for the New York Times in 2004 and his “Matter” column has appeared each week since 2013. His work has earned numerous awards, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize and the National Academies Communication Award. He is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Kavli Laureate, having won their journalism award three times.Zimmer’s most recent book, published in May, is She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. He has won fellowships for his books from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.At Yale, Zimmer has been teaching writing courses and graduate student workshops since 2008. In 2016 he was appointed professor adjunct in the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry.

For more information: https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/what-science-science-communication-what-should-it-be

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