2011 Vetlesen Lectures in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the University
of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography:
The State of Our Oceans
Communicating Science: Lessons Learned from an Environmental Crisis - March 8.
Chris Reddy, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and an expert on oil spills, will take his scientist colleagues to task when he presents a lecture entitled “Communicating Science: Lessons Learned from an Environmental Crisis” at the University of Rhode Island on Mar. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
His presentation, in Edward’s
Auditorium on the URI Kingston campus, is part of the University’s
Vetlesen lecture series on “The State of the Oceans” in
conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Graduate School of Oceanography.
The event is sponsored by the Harrington School of Communication and
Media and is free and open to the public.
In his lecture, Reddy will argue that scientists must take greater responsibility for communicating science to the public.
“Academia does great at science, but it is poor at communicating about that science,” said Reddy. “Everybody wants to blame the press, and the media do need to improve, but I think scientists need to improve more. They just don’t speak the same language that the public does, and it’s really important that they do.”
A marine chemist who earned a Ph.D in oceanography from URI, Reddy was awarded an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 2006, which teaches scientists to communicate environmental science to the public, media, and policymakers. He presents scientific talks to lay audiences throughout the country and has published more than 20 op-ed articles or editorials on science-based issues in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, and other publications.
Reddy has studied several oil spills in the last 15 years, including the 1996 North Cape spill on the Rhode Island coast and the 2003 spill in Buzzard’s Bay. He traveled aboard the URI research vessel Endeavor last summer to study the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where he was the first to report finding a sizeable underwater plume of oil after BP and government officials said that no plume existed.
A native Rhode Islander, Reddy studies the impact of oil spills and other contaminants on coastal ecosystems. He is also beginning to turn his attention to biodiesel by trying to anticipate and analyze how this new fuel might react when it inevitably mixes with water.
For background material on this lecture, click here.
To view this lecture online, click here.
Major Sponsors:
The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation
The URI Graduate School of Oceanography
Co-Sponsors:
URI Coastal Institute
URI Honors Program
Special Sponsors:
URI College of Arts & Sciences
URI Harrington School of Communication and Media
Rhode Island Sea Grant
Colloquium Coordinators:
Professor Steven D'Hondt, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Dr. Sunshine Menezes, Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Professor Arthur Spivack, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Professor Judith Swift, Coastal Institute / Communication Studies.
