Shrinivasan Raghuraman Realizes the Value of Science Communication

When I started to think about public engagement of science, few things came to my mind: do table-top activities, give public seminars and get everyone excited about science. Though these were good starting points, the initial excitement slowly faded and nagging questions began creeping: Why am I doing it? How do I benefit from it? That’s when the STEM Ambassador Program helped me realize that engagement is beyond these chores of disseminating knowledge and telling the world how important my research is. The STEMAP team helped with logistics, collaborated with various organizers, and tightened all the nuts and bolts that made it easy to see public engagement beyond its face value.

I visited the following venues: Salt Lake County Jail, Salt Lake Prison, youth detention centers, senior living centers, a homeschool summer camp and many more. The visit to each venue was a unique experience and the process of connecting with the audience (and the organizers) from these various backgrounds was always fulfilling. I metamorphosed from a scientist who got laymen excited about science, into someone who listened to what matters the most to people.

In thinking about how science could alleviate their fears, I researched various topics beforehand. I updated myself on the frontiers of neurodegenerative disorders before visiting senior citizens, comfortably answered why addiction is still a problem when asked by an inmate, and prepared myself to be outsmarted by a middle school kid. I used science as a language to convey this message to my audience: Science makes this world a better place and we all belong in it together.