On April 12-13th, 2007, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln hosted a Communicating Science to Broader Audiences Conference for scientists and writers interested in raising awareness of and knowledge about science outside the scientific community. Conference participants included scientists, journalists, free-lance science writers, communications specialists, graduate students, science museum staff, and a film maker. One main area of discussion was identifying the challenges of communicating science to broader audiences and how to face these challenges.
In addition to presentations and panel sessions, the conference included several table discussions for the development and exchange of ideas among all participants. Resulting is a list of action items on how to better communicate science to broader audiences.
Sponsors of the conference included UNL MRSEC, Project Fulcrum, UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications, UNL Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and The National Science Foundation.