Learning Science Communication on the Job

Abstract

Most professional scientists have no formal training in communicating science to the broader community. Exposure to the ‘big time’ of newspapers and television often comes very suddenly, and with little warning. High quality science journalists working for prestigious dailies like The New York Times may contact you because your latest ‘breakthrough paper’ is to be published in a leading format, such as Science, Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine. Your Institution may push you into the limelight because of a perception that your brilliant work on cancer may help to attract philanthropy. In my case, I became interesting when I shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with my Swiss friend, Rolf Zinkernagel. Being a Nobel Laureate confers an instant and identifiable personality status in a media world obsessed with personality.