25th-Annual Cottrell Scholar Conference
The 25th-annual Cottrell Scholar conference, held July 10-12, 2019, in Tucson, Ariz., drew approximately 125 teacher-scholars and other interested participants from U.S. research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions to discuss the theme “Communicating Science.”
“We share our planet with over 7.5 billion people, and only a relatively small number are research scientists,” noted RCSA President Dan Linzer. ”Thus we need all of our voices to speak clearly of the truth and wonder of science if we are to fuel the imagination and enthusiasm of our fellow citizens and address today’s most pressing challenges.”
Keynote speakers Katie Orenstein, founder and CEO of the OpEd Project, and Brandon Echter, Science Friday’s digital managing editor, provided important tips and communication tools to help conference participants adapt their messages to various audiences.
Orenstein conducted an interactive session presenting current data on the demographics of public discourse, and addressed core questions of thought leadership: what do we know, why does it matter, and how can we maximize our impact? She also led a large-group experiment in credibility designed to inspire participants to come up with bold ideas and provide them with a deeper sense of what they, as well as their colleagues, know and stand for.
Echter stressed that in an era when research is routinely misunderstood, misrepresented or misinterpreted, it’s important for scientists to advocate for their research themselves. In a wide-ranging talk he explained what communication professionals are looking for when interviewing scientists, and he outlined some of the common pitfalls scientists fall into when communicating their research to the world. He also suggested ways researchers can become advocates using their own voice and personality through social media such as Twitter.
An important goal of the conference was to welcome the members of the 2019 class to the Cottrell Scholar community. Because networking is critical to the success of the program, all new Cottrell Scholars were invited to give short oral presentations that were followed by a poster session at a reception honoring the new Scholars. During introductory remarks, active and past Cottrell Scholars were urged to introduce each other and make new connections.
The second evening of the conference featured a tri-lateral Science Slam with six early career scientists – German, Russian and U.S. – passionately discussing their research before a live audience of roughly 250 people, including Cottrell Scholars and members of the Tucson community. The event, complete with rock music and stage lighting, was hosted by Fulbright Germany, RCSA and the Deutsch-Russisches Forum and was part of the Year of German-American Friendship. The competition was won by American Rui Wang, bioengineering, UC San Diego, who studies fantastic feats of regeneration by the freshwater cnidarian Hydra under the supervision of Cottrell Scholar Eva-Maria Collins.
(The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research makes funds available for two annual Cottrell-Fulbright Awards, which are based on RCSA’s Cottrell Scholar Award. The awardees also attend the Cottrell Scholar Conference in Tucson.)
Also at the conference, 2018 Cottrell FRED Award winner Will Dichtel, a Cottrell Scholar since 2012, and the recipient of a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship, among many other awards, gave a talk on his area of expertise, entitled “Polymerization in Two Dimensions.” He pointed out that the most versatile 2D polymerization approach requires molecular building blocks to simultaneously assemble and react into materials known as “covalent organic frameworks,” or COFs, adding, “COF synthesis is poorly understood, requiring methods to be developed by trial-and-error for each new example.” Dichtel described his efforts to understand how COFs form so as to rationally improve their quality and unlock their potential applications.
In a deeply moving speech, 2019 Cottrell IMPACT Award-winner Keivan Stassun (CS 2006) described for his fellow teacher-scholars the work he has done, and the emotional rewards he has received, as the prime architect of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program.
It has triggered a revolution in the way science doctoral programs at research institutions deal with potential candidates among underrepresented minorities. Stassun’s bridge program is now being emulated at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, MIT and Harvard. National Public Radio reports that since it began with a three-student cohort in 2004, the program has accepted 68 students, 55 of whom came from underrepresented minority backgrounds (African-American, Hispanic and Native American) and 46 percent of the students have been women. The program has a retention rate of 92 percent, with 100 percent job placement for those who complete the program.
According to Stassun, as the program was starting up it greatly benefited from the visibility and imprimatur provided by RCSA as a respected national organization for advancing the physical sciences. The Cottrell IMPACT Award is designed to recognize the work of an outstanding Cottrell Scholar who has had a national impact in science through leadership and service activities.
In addition, 2019 Cottrell STAR Award winners discussed their recent projects. The STAR Award recognizes Cottrell Scholars’ outstanding research and educational accomplishments. This year’s speakers included chemists Sarah Keller, U Washington, who leads educational initiatives in teaching, chemical education research, and mentoring both students and faculty, including work with international mentoring networks; Andrew Ellington, UT Austin, whose educational goal has been to improve experiential learning that can lead to job-ready skillsets and entrepreneurship; and Stephen Bradforth, University of Southern California, who is helping guide a complete overhaul of his school’s undergraduate science degree programs and serves as USC’s Science Division Dean.
For more information on their work, as well as Stassun’s, see: https://bit.ly/2SYgwjt.
As with every Cottrell Scholar Conference, there were numerous breakout sessions. This year participants discussed social media and traditional media activities and approaches for communicating with diverse audiences, how to tweak their messages to specific audiences and platforms, and how to write effective Op-Ed columns. There were also discussions about science communication in the context of STEM education.
The breakout sessions also provided opportunities to identify topics that may lead to successful Cottrell Scholar Collaborative (CSC) projects.
Conference co-chairs Mario Affatigato, physics, Coe College, and RCSA Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco, told attendees a great way to pursue new educational ideas with potential national impact is to participate in a project with other CSC members. “CSC participation is also an excellent way to develop your academic leadership skills,” they noted.
A cross-disciplinary network begun in 2011, CSC’s overarching goals are to improve undergraduate and graduate science education at colleges and universities across the country, and to enhance faculty success in combining scholarship, teaching, mentoring and leadership activities. Several CSC participants delivered progress reports on their projects:
-- Amanda Wolfe, chemistry, University of North Carolina, Asheville, discussed “Development of a Faculty Empowerment Network for Tenure Track Faculty in Chemistry and Physics;”
-- Scott K. Shaw, chemistry, University of Iowa, discussed “ Scholars Collaborative (CSC) for a Science Communication Enabled Community;”
-- Affatigato discussed “Catalyzing Joint Research between Predominantly Undergraduate (PUI) and Research (R1) Institutions through the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative;”
-- Adam Urbach, chemistry, Trinity University, discussed “Training Faculty to Assist Students in Career;” and,
-- Jennifer Heemstra, chemistry, Emory University, reported on a Cottrell Scholar regional meeting at Emory University.
