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‘Improv to Improve’ Workshops Now Available for Booking!

Want to improve science communication skills for your department or group? Spend some time with us and we’ll teach you how to communicate science and research accurately, effectively and understandably to diverse audiences. Led by co-directors Nicholas M. Ponzio (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School) and David Dannenfelser (Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts), the Improv to Improve workshop series teaches how to:

  • identify the essential message that defines your research
  • recognize the diverse audiences you speak to about your research
  • engage your audience and tell them why they should care about your research
  • speak clearly and vividly in language your audience will understand

Please contact Mary L. Nucci at mnucci@sebs.rutgers.edu for more information.

Rutgers has a long history of being at the forefront of research, teaching, and the practice of science, health, risk, and environmental communication. Bringing these together under the umbrella term “science communication,” the goal of the Rutgers Science Communication Initiative is to enhance the effectiveness, coordination, and visibility of Rutgers efforts in education, research, and outreach to:

  • advance the science of science communication;
  • train existing and emerging professionals in its practice; and
  • create a synergistic community of faculty, students, staff and postgraduate trainees able to communicate about science with diverse publics, including policy makers.

To achieve these goals, the Initiative and our affiliates offer the following opportunities:

Education

Research

  • Research programs across the Rutgers campuses

Outreach

Meet an RU Science Communicator

Headshot of Anthony J. Broccoli.

Anthony J. Broccoli, Ph.D.

My attraction to science began in childhood when I developed a fascination with the weather. I majored in meteorology as a Rutgers undergraduate before going on to graduate school. Prior to my current position at Rutgers, I spent 21 years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, one of the world’s premier climate modeling centers.

I teach courses in meteorology/atmospheric science, with climate science as my primary research interest. The goal of my research is to understand the fundamental processes that are involved in climate variability and climate change using numerical models of the climate system. I use these models to look backward to understand how climate has changed in the past, and forward to anticipate how climate will change in the future.

I typically give about ten talks per year to non-specialist audiences at Rutgers and external events. When speaking to these groups, my goal is to convey three points: what we know, what we do not yet know, and the process by which our knowledge advances. I have found this last point to be particularly important, as the methods of scientific inquiry are not always transparent to the larger community.