Communicating Your Research
Stay alert for new opportunities and resources!
Alda Center for Communicating Science
Looking to enhance your ability to talk about your research to anyone? The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science offers a series of (mostly) 1-credit graduate-level modules on their innovative
communication techniques for connecting with an audience. Interested participants
are recommended to begin with the following courses:
- JRN 501 Foundations of Science Communication I. Students will build skills to communicate in a way that excites, engages, and encourages audiences to want to learn more about their work. Innovative, improvisational theater-based techniques are combined with message design strategies like distilling and storytelling, enabling healthcare professionals, scientists, and researchers to use strategy and spontaneity to execute powerful communication in any context.
- JRN 503 Foundations of Science Communication II. Participants who have completed JRN 501 will continue building their foundations in science communication with explorations into engaging with key audiences and the media, as well as creating a presentation accompanied by compelling visuals.
A limited number of seats are reserved in most Alda Center courses for postdocs to enroll for free as a non-credit-earning student. Postdocs may only sign up for one class per semester, and must sign up during course registration each semester by contacting the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at postdocs@stonybrook.edu. Only two seats per section are available on a first come, first served basis. Postdoc enrollment typically opens mid semester for the next semester's courses. Postdoc enrollment is available in:
- JRN 501 Foundations of Science Communication I (1 credit)
- JRN 503 Foundations of Science Communication II (1 credit)
- JRN 513 Science of Science Communication (1 credit)
- JRN 565 Communicating Your Science (3 credit combo of 501, 503, 513)
- JRN 522 Communicating to Decision-Makers (1 credit, Prerequisite: JRN 501 or 565)
- JRN 534 Communicating Science Using Digital Media (1 credit, Prereq: 565 or 501+503+513)
Grant & Proposal Writing
Every semester, our Grant Writing Workshop offers meaningful orientation to find and win a grant or fellowship suitable for your own research needs. By participating in this workshop, you will find the right funding for your research needs, practice exercises to help you distill your message to communicate to non-specialist grant reviewers, and produce a one-page draft of your research project. All postdocs are welcome.
SBU Postdoc Spotlight
Stony Brook's Postdoc Spotlight is an opportunity for postdocs to hone their communication
skills by presenting their research for a general audience in only five minutes. These
bitesized talks provide an exciting snapshot of postdoctoral research for our campus
community, drawing a full house from across campus. Postdoc speakers receive intensive
coaching on their talks from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, providing
them with tools for talking about their research with any audience. Prizes are given
for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place talks. The Postdoc Spotlight is held annually during the
Fall semester.
Advanced Graduate Certificate in Communicating Science
This 12-credit program is designed to complement STEM or health-focused SBU graduate work and prepare students to combine their subject-matter knowledge with evidence-based communication strategies. The certificate is offered by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science through the Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism.
Graduate-Level Writing
WRT 621: Graduate-Level Writing. The Program in Writing and Rhetoric will offer a course each semester, WRT 621, Graduate-Level Writing, designed for students in all disciplines. The course will be a workshop that allows the students to work on whatever writing they are currently doing in their graduate programs, whether course papers, lab reports, reviews of research, publishable articles, or theses. The students for the course will be from all disciplines and they will learn from each other as well as from the instructor. The course will concern itself with all the fundamentals of writing, from considerations of grammar and punctuation, to rhetorical considerations of audience, evidence, inference-drawing, sentence and paragraph construction, and organization.