Science With Society: Attending Science Talk 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Science Talk 2025, a science communication conference organized by the wonderful people of the Association of Science Communicators.

I was able to attend because of a wonderful travel grant provided by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Thank you so much for this giving me this career-changing opportunity!

Welcome to #SciComm25!

The Association of Science Communicators is a professional development organization connecting science communicators from a wide variety of areas of expertise, locations around the world, and media.

There were many full-time researchers attending who specialize in the science communication field. There were also researchers from other fields, from public health to marine science, who simply love finding creative ways to communicate their work, view it as an essential part of their research, or run science communication endeavors in addition to their full-time research (where they find the time or energy, who knows! They're superstars).

There were also people whose full-time jobs were in the field of science communication itself. These were social media specialists, communications strategists, photographers, journalists, graphic designers, and artists of all flavors. There were scientists who became artistis, and artists who became scientists.

A room full of science communication nerds, what could be better?

There were many attendants who loved their jobs and couldn't imagine doing anything else. There were many others who were looking to make a change and were picking other attendants' brains on the landscape of science communication as a viable field for a career. I heard so many stories like my own: "I always wanted to do something like science communication, but never knew the term 'science communication' even existed!"

As soon as I entered the conference location, I could sense that I was in the right place. This was a group of gregarious, creative nerds, and I immediately felt as though I had found my people. I've enjoyed past science conferences that I've attended, but it dawned on me that I have a specific interest in the techniques and skills of communicating science. I frequently listen to podcasts about debunking science myths, and I find research on the spread of misinformation and the psychology of deprogramming fascinating. I was surrounded by people with this shared interest, and it was so easy to strike up conversations and share ideas or books/documentaries/podcasts that we were currently nerding out over.

The most important messages I took away were the interesting, nuanced discussions around the ethics of science communication. Essentially, can we use the tools of propoganda, marketing, and sales for good? Science communicators are wary and sensitive to the idea of "influencing" people, because we are often trying to undo the harm and damage done by "misinfluencers". How do we ensure that the outcomes we hope to achieve are consistently rooted in the best of intentions? I find comfort in that by asking the question in the first place, as members of this industry we show a level of self-awareness, and a commitment to transparency and compassion that will keep us on the right path. Continuing these open and challenging discussions not only will help us course-correct as needed, but also can support the scientific community in ensuring their work continues to ethically serve their communities.

I'm already excited for next year's conference (in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, no less) and I am recruiting all of my science, policy, and scicomm nerd friends to come. I can't wait to be even more involved with this community in the future - and it's imperative in these times to maintain strong connections based on our shared values of advocacy, truth, and finding joy.

#scicomm #sciencecommunication #scitalk25 #associationofsciencecommunicators