Life Sciences Communication is in the midst of presenting a forum on Emerging Technologies at the Intersection of Science, Policy, and Media. UW-Madison faculty and staff and the general public are welcome to attend the public talks, being held from 7-8pm, 1100 Grainger Hall. The remaining talks in this series include:

Business and science: Agendas for the 21st century
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tom Still, President, Wisconsin Technology Council

Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council and its
membership subsidiary, the Wisconsin Innovation Network. He is also a member
of the Governor’s Economic Growth Council, the Industrial Advisory Board to
the UW Madison College of Engineering, the Board of Visitors of the UW
Extension, the Madison Economic Development Commission, the Dane County
Economic Strategies Group and the UW Madison E-Commerce Institute.

Still has been the principal author or editor of Tech Council reports since
2002, such as “The Economic Value of Academic Research and Development in
Wisconsin : and “Vision 2020: A Model of Wisconsin Economy.” He is also the
former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, where he was editor
of the Opinion pages and responsible for other management duties.
Previously, Still was chief political writer at the State Journal.

Talking about the weather: Shaping public perception of science
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Jonathan Martin, Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UW-Madison

Jonathan Martin is Professor and Chair in the Department of Atmospheric
Sciences at UW-Madison, where he has taught for over 14 years. His research
expertise involves studies of the dynamics, precipitation distribution and
life cycles of mid-latitude weather systems and he has authored or
co-authored more than 40 papers in scholarly journals. He has received
numerous accolades for his teaching including the Underkofler Excellence in
Teaching Award and is a Fellow in the Teaching Academy of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He was awarded the distinction of being named a Mark H.
Ingraham Distinguished Faculty Member by the College of Letters and Science,
and is the author of the leading textbook in his field, Mid-Latitude
Atmospheric Dynamics: A First Course. For the past 10 years he and his colleague Prof. Steve Ackerman (The Weather Guys) have been regular guests on the Larry Meiller show on WHA, taking calls about weather, climate and science more generally.

Writing science: About monkeys, ghosts, and Larry Summers
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Deb Blum, Professor, Journalism & Mass Communication

As a science writer for the Sacramento Bee, Deb Blum wrote a series of articles examining the professional, ethical, and emotional conflicts between scientists who use animals in their research and animal rights activists who oppose that research. Titled “The Monkey Wars”, the series won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.

Blum expanded her newspaper series on primate research into a book, also called The Monkey Wars, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1994. She is also author of Sex on the Brain, which was a named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and Discover Magazine.

Blum has also written for publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Discover, Psychology Today, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone Books, The Utne Reader and More magazine. She was president of the National Association of Science Writers from 2002-2004 and currently serves on advisory boards to the Council for Advancement of Science Writing and the World Federation of Science Journalists.

What we think science is: Cultivating our beliefs
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
James Shanahan, Professor, Communication, Fairfield University

James Shanahan is Chair of the Department of Communication at Fairfield University. He is also the Director of the Graduate Program. Before coming to Fairfield University, he worked as Assistant and Associate professor at Cornell University, and previously as Assistant Professor at Boston University.

His research interests focus on cultural indicators, cultivation theory, media effects and public opinion. Special areas of focus are communication in relation to science and the environment. He has served as the editor of the journal Mass Communication and Society, and is an editorial board member of the American Journal of Media Psychology; Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture; Learning, Media & Technology; and the Journal of Communication.

He has co-authored several books, including Television and it Viewers (Cambridge University Pres, 1999) and Nature Stories (Hampton Press, 1999).

Does science have a marketing problem? The convergence of science, policy, and communication
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Dietram A. Scheufele, Professor, Life Sciences Communication

Dietram A. Scheufele is Wisconsin PI and co-leader of the Public Opinion and Values Research Team for the NSF-funded Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU). Scheufele also currently serves on the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group to the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a joint committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Bar Association.

Scheufele’s professional experience includes consulting work for Fallon Worldwide, the Public Broadcasting System, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank. Prior to joining UW, he was a tenured faculty member at Cornell University.