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 do…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:
"…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.