Scientific Communicator

Scientists are confronted with distinct 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 scientific approach to sharpening an array of essential communication skills for use in research and beyond. Training topics 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 professional, 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 value this program, since they can use the skills in every sentence they speak or write.