Effective Science Communication

Effective Science Communication: A practical guide to surviving as a scientist is devoted to the variety of ways that scientists are expected to communicate in their day-to-day professional lives. It includes practical advice on how to publish your work in scientific journals, apply for grants, and effectively communicate your research to both scientific and non-scientific audiences. There are chapters devoted to constructing a digital footprint, dealing with the media, and influencing science policy. Guiding you throughout are a number of useful exercises that will help you to become a more effective communicator, providing a helping hand in your scientific journey to not only survive, but to prosper in the process.

Sam Illingworth is a lecturer in science communication at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). He completed his PhD in atmospheric physics in 2010 at the University of Leicester. He then spent two years in Japan as a Daiwa-Anglo Japanese Foundation scholar, where he investigated how theatrical techniques can be used to develop effective science communication skills. He returned to the UK in 2012, and spent 18 months at the University of Manchester, where as well as measuring methane and other greenhouse gases from airborne platforms, he spent a large amount of time developing outreach activities throughout the Greater Manchester area, before taking up his current post at MMU. In 2013 he was selected to be the young scientist representative for the European Geosciences Union (EGU), a role that involves the representation of more than 10,000 postgraduate and early-career scientists, ensuring that they have a clear and discernable voice at both the yearly EGU general assembly, and throughout the union at all levels.Grant Allen is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of Manchester, funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), working on novel remote sensing measurements from aircraft in support of regional air-quality forecasting. He completed his PhD in 2005 at the University of Leicester's Earth Observation Science Group on satellite remote sensing of peroxyacetyl nitrate in the atmosphere. He then joined the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester as a postdoctoral researcher and worked on projects such as ACTIVE, to investigate thunderstorm, monsoon and synoptic-scale dynamics and their impact on trace gas redistribution and chemistry, and VOCALS, to investigate the complex interactions between the Walker circulation, coastal and marine aerosol sources, ocean currents, and Andean topography. In 2011, he was awarded a NERC Fellowship to develop novel airborne remote-sensing techniques for atmospheric composition monitoring with a focus on aircraft measurements around London during the ClearfLo project using the prestigious NERC FAAM aircraft, and joined the MAMM project as co-I and aircraft work package manager to investigate potential source strengths of Arctic methane and other greenhouse gases in this important and rapidly-changing environment.