On the Road to the University of Washington

Tomorrow at the University of Washington I will be speaking to the Department of Communication in the morning and then joined in the evening by Chris Mooney to deliver our Speaking Science 2.0 lecture. In the afternoon, we will also be hosting a discussion with graduate students on the topic of “When Science Turns Political…”

The events are sponsored by the Forum on Science, Ethics, and Policy (FOSEP) and the Pacific Institute. The evening talk at the Pacific Science Center, free and open to the public, starts at 7pm (details on the full day’s events).

Using the anniversary of Sputnik as the hook, Thomas Robey, past director of FOSEP, has an op-ed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer today, emphasizing the importance of science communication and plugging Friday’s talk. Here’s how Robey closes the article:

Sputnik circled the planet for only three months. By the time the beach ball-size piece of metal disintegrated in the atmosphere, scientists occupied seats at the tables where policy decisions were forged. Science first informed national defense, then the quest for better health. Add to those today’s challenges of energy use and climate change and the incentive to do good science and for it to inform decisions in politics has never been greater. Each of us — scientists and others — must engage the future with our ideas, our resources and our imagination.