Background
I have just completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. I was based at Kyoto University and studied the flow of liquids over nanomaterial-coated surfaces. I'm to start work at Lam Research, in California, very soon.
I often suspect that science communication can be shortened to just "communication." If something is important or interesting enough to discuss, then it ought to be worth the extra effort to make that discussion understandable. I think that science is fun, and also that science and its products are some of the few ways we as human beings have to understand and change our surroundings. Sharing that, rather than just babbling to myself, is my goal as a communicator.
A different kind of communication
In Japan my minimal Japanese language skills limited my ability to communicate about anything, including science. As a result, I did little of the outreach work I've enjoyed in the past. However, I did dabble in applying my science communication skills to consulting. In that capacity I worked to find and then explain technical solutions to corporate and industrial clients.
For the future
Before going to Japan I worked with Portal to the Public and other science outreach programs near my home in New York. I'll soon be moving to California and hope to continue that sort of work there.
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