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2019–2020 GSA SCIENCE COMMUNICATION FELLOWSHIP WRAP-UP

Propelling Geoscience Communication

into the Future

Last July, just a few days after being Machu Picchu may have been intentionally built on faults (see these
named GSA’s 2019–2020 Science and other GSA press releases at https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/
Communication Fellow, my first official News/Releases/GSA/News/pr/Releases.aspx).
task was to write a blog celebrating the 50th Based on this success, we decided to take advantage of my addi-
anniversary of the first moon landing (see tional experience as a travel writer to highlight more place-based
https://speakingofgeoscience.org/2019/07/19/ research topics using traditional press releases combined with a
a-giant-leap-for-the-geosciences/). Since I new communications product: video research summaries. These
grew up in a home whose cornerstone was a present key research findings for lay audiences in short (approx.
Terri Cook meteorite, I have always been fascinated by two-minute), imagery-driven videos especially well suited to
anything related to space. This is especially true of the Apollo 11 sharing on social media.
mission, which landed in the Sea of Tranquility before I was born, To date, GSA has issued two such summaries: one about glacier
but whose technological and scientific achievements, as well as detachments in Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve
sheer audacity, have long inspired me to “reach for the stars.” (https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2020/20-12.aspx) and
Arguably, the most impressive fact about that mission is that 600 a second about the discovery of two previously unknown super-
million people—one-sixth of the planet’s population—all paused eruptions along the Yellowstone hotspot (https://www.geosociety.org/
together to breathlessly share in the triumph of watching a fellow GSA/News/pr/2020/20-18.aspx). These videos clearly have the
human leave that first, indelible footprint on the lunar surface. potential to help expand the audience and diversify the outlets in
Now humanity has once again paused—only this time, it’s for which GSA-published research results appear; even though the
a virus, and the response has been anything but unified. format requires fine-tuning, these pilots were widely viewed and
The current pandemic has resulted in a terrible death toll and shared, especially considering the current, limited coverage of
forced many of us to make significant changes in almost every non-coronavirus–related stories in the media.
aspect of our lives, from working and socializing to dining and GSA likewise moved to the forefront of science communication
travel. The pandemic has also changed scientific research, pub- trends when it hosted its first virtual section meeting in May. This
lishing, and discourse. Although many changes within these event featured pre-recorded oral presentations with live question-
realms are likely to be temporary, some may herald new, long- and-answer periods as well as “flash” talks, during which the
term trends in research funding, teaching, conferences, and ulti- authors of poster presentations were allotted two minutes to pres-
mately how science is communicated. ent their findings. Like the video research summaries, flash talks
As GSA’s Science Communication Fellow, my primary respon- inherently required presenters to narrow down their scope to just
sibility during the past ten months has been to scan the thousands a few, key points—e.g., what truly matters.
of abstracts submitted for the annual meeting and papers nearing The recent announcement that this year’s annual meeting will
publication in GSA journals. In collaboration with GSA’s commu- also be completely online, while still offering many quintessential
nications staff, I selected an average of one article or abstract per GSA experiences such as field trips and networking events, will
month that I believed would be of broad interest to the general offer novel opportunities for GSA members to participate in what
public (and therefore likely to be picked up by media outlets) and promises to be an innovative and exciting experiment. As the explo-
wrote a press release about it. ration of space has aptly demonstrated, change is often positive and
The diversity of the topics I’ve covered, which has ranged from can unify us; the current pandemic, despite its many negative conse-
Zealandia, Earth’s hidden continent, to how extra-terrestrial impacts quences, has the potential to lead to substantive improvements in
may have triggered bursts of plate tectonics, is indicative of the how geoscience research is conducted and communicated.
broad range of exciting geoscience research that GSA regularly pub- By experimenting with new forms of scientific discourse, we all
lishes. But of all the press releases I wrote, the one with by far the have an unparalleled opportunity to not only seek out new scientific
widest distribution—with a potential reach of more than one billion findings, but to also explore better ways of communicating these to
people—covered a hypothesis that the ancient Incan sanctuary of each other and to the public to propel ourselves into the future.

16 GSA Today | August 2020