Scientific Communicator

Scientists are confronted with unique communication challenges. They discuss technical issues with colleagues, attend meetings with staff from other departments, and explain their work to management. Academic training in the sciences, even at the doctoral level, fails to build the communication competences that scientists need every day on the job. An inadequate ability to articulate ideas can trap talented researchers in the lab, even when their abilities and ambitions make them excellent candidates for managerial responsibilities. This program takes a systematic approach to sharpening an array of essential communication skills for use in research and beyond.

Training topics may include:

Presenting results to colleagues
Contributing ideas to meetings
Commenting on the work of others
Explaining technical information to general audiences
Requesting budgets for projects and equipment
Interpreting data for cross-functional teams
Describing diagrams, graphs, charts, and data tables
Helping management to understand the value (or problems) of your work

If you are an international, the program also includes a component to ensure that you are intelligible when you discuss your work and that you adjust to the different type of language used outside of research.

Scientists who take this program report that it is one of their most valuable steps in professional development, since they can use the skills in every sentence they speak or write.