This site provides a central resource
at Cornell for information about science communication and the new undergraduate minor in Science Communication and Public Engagement (SCoPE).
What does the field of science communication include?
Other names for the field include outreach, popularization, public engagement in science, and public communication of science and technology (PCST), etc. When available, we will also point to information about science communication among specialists.
The goal of SciComm@Cornell is to provide a landing page for people interested in learning more about how to do public communication of science and technology. Both the site and the “scicomm” tag on events highlight training opportunities, talks about the process of public communication, etc. To avoid overloading the calendar, we are not tagging specific outreach events, popular lectures, or similar items; we want to keep the focus on the process rather than the product.
Contacts at Cornell
Bruce Lewenstein
Professor of Science Communication
Dr. Bruce V. Lewenstein is a widely-known authority on public communication of science and technology–how science and technology are reported to the public and how the public understands controversial scientific issues and “emerging technologies” such as biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Trained as a historian of science, he often uses historical case studies in his research. He has also done extensive work evaluating “citizen science” outreach projects, in which citizens fully participate in the scientific process by gathering, entering, and sometimes analyzing scientific data. In recent years, he has helped connect the “public communication” field with the “learning sciences” field, especially around issues of public engagement in science. He works frequently with scientists learning more about public communication of science and technology.
Mark Sarvary
Faculty Advisor for SCoPE
As the Director of the Biology Teaching Laboratories at Cornell, Sarvary teaches information and science literacy, critical thinking, experimental design, and science communication through modules in ecology, genetics, and microbiology. As a strong advocate of public engagement with science, he is co-producer of a local podcast called Locally Sourced Science, he is a faculty advisor of the undergraduate medical and life sciences debate club and a new undergraduate podcast called State-of-the-Pod.
>In addition to teaching an Applied Science Communication Course at Cornell and at the Shoals Marine Laboratory, he is also the faculty advisor for the new Science Communication and Public Engagement undergraduate minor(SCoPE) at Cornell.
SCoPE Undergraduate Minor Steering Committee 2017-2020
Mark Sarvary (Investigative Biology Teaching Laboratories), Bruce Lewenstein (Science & Technology Studies, Communication), and Cole Gilbert (Entomology), convened an inter-college steering committee to plan the concept, description, and learning objectives of the SCoPE minor.
The steering committee was composed of instructors from a range of colleges and departments:
- Carlyn Buckler, School of Integrative Plant Science
- Lauren Chambliss, Communication
- Itai Cohen, Physics
- Beth Howland, Undergraduate Biology
- Julie Nucci, Materials Science and Engineering
- Linda Rayor, Entomology
- Christine Smart, School of Integrative Plant Science
- Kitty Gifford, Communications Specialist