Do you ever wonder how the university picks which research to highlight in our signature publications? Or how your colleague’s work landed in the local newspaper?
Find out at the Brown Bag Lunch on Monday, August 26, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., in the Collaboratorium (IRIC 352).
Leigh Cooper, U of I’s science and content writer, will be leading a discussion about the importance of publicizing research and the university’s process for disseminating and promoting research. All CMCI participants are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Cooper has a talent for breaking down complicated concepts for the non-scientist general public and explaining research processes in everyday language. Her love of science shines through in every article.
How did Cooper become a science writer? In her own words –
My professor advised me to become a science teacher after my partner and I, dressed as kangaroos, presented our kangaroo mating study as an episode of the radio call-in show “Loveline.” Until then, I never thought to share my dizzying enthusiasm for the natural world through teaching. As I slogged through graduate school, drowning in freshwater nutrient cycles, the fun of learning science began to dissipate. My students were my salvation. They asked the most important question: “Why should we care?” I had forgotten what I had once known instinctively: As a teacher, I needed to find that one story, study, or kangaroo costume that viscerally engaged my audience. Now, as a science writer, I will connect my readers with a world where each brook and beetle bursts with a captivating tale to tell. I have worked as a science writer for the American Geophysical Union, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Idaho and a number of other organizations as a freelancer and intern.