Chemistry Communication Leadership Institute
Deborah L. Illman, Ph.D.
University of Washington
illman@u.washington.edu
206-616-4826
Fifteen postdoctoral researchers from across the country attended the first Chemistry Communication Leadership Institute, held at the University of Washington (UW) in September 2009, sponsored by NSF, the ACS, and the UW.
The goal of this project is to cultivate a cadre of chemistry communication leaders who can help bring about a cultural change to promote public communication and to mentor others now in the pipeline to be tomorrow's chemistry communicators.
Most of the postdoctoral chemists (80%) who attended the first Institute were unfamiliar with the structure of news writing prior to the course. None had ever heard of a public information officer before or knew anything about communicating to journalists using a press release. But by the time they finished this one-week intensive experience, all had written a press release themselves and had a chance to learn and practice a range of techniques for communicating more effectively with journalists and the public. The course was rated good to excellent by 100% of participants (mean = 4.53 on scale of 1 to 5), and 100% would recommend it to others. A full 100% said they were more likely to engage in communication in their careers because of the program.
The format alternated short lecture and discussion periods with hands-on activities to practice new skills. Participants learned about news writing from lead instructor Deborah Illman, a former reporter for Chemical & Engineering News who teaches science writing at the UW, joined by science writer Ivan Amato of C&EN, Robert Service of Science, and Alan Boyle of MSNBC.com. Participants learned the basics of freelancing and writing a query letter – a proposal used to pitch a story idea to an editor; and they practiced a 90-second elevator talk with the help of a journalist from the local NPR radio station.
A session on interviewing used role-playing simulations to prepare chemists to interact with journalists. Our hypothesis was that by putting the chemists in the journalist's shoes and having them interview commonly encountered types of personalities, they would gain insights about serving as media sources themselves. These simulations proved to be highly effective, receiving the highest rating (4.87 out of a possible 5) of all activities.
Coverage of the event appeared in Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 87, No. 41, pp. 55 (October 12, 2009).