Communication is a common barrier between scientists and the public. While training science majors for presentations to other scientists is not unusual on college campuses, teaching them to rise above the jargon and truly communicate what they are studying and how that affects the broader world is a relatively new idea.

Two years ago, Dr. Magnus Rittby, senior associate dean for TCU’s College of Science & Engineering, attended a workshop series at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science to understand the communication barrier between scientists and the public. He envisioned the opportunity to broaden student and faculty communication skills and created a new initiative called SciCom. SciCom launched with a series of science communication workshops, including Jargon is Jibberish and the Three Minute Thesis (3MT^®) competition, where graduate students present a compelling oration on their thesis/dissertation topic and its significance in just three minutes while using language appropriate for a non-scientist audience.

Now, Rittby’s bringing the Center’s workshops and ideas to the leadership of TCU and the University of North Texas Health Science Center Sept. 23.

Pioneered by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, this event features improvisational theater exercises and other techniques, such as verbal and non-verbal communication, to help participants connect more directly and spontaneously with different audiences. All faculty and staff are invited to the workshop’s interactive opening plenary, where problems and solutions to public interactions, as well as peer-to-peer communication will be addressed. The opening plenary is from 8:30-10 a.m. in the Sid W. Richardson Building, lecture hall three. 

The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science was founded in 2009 to enhance the understanding of science by helping train the next generation of scientists and health professionals to effectively communicate with the public, public officials, the media and others outside their disciplines.