W. Wayt Gibbs,Aleszu Bajak, and Julia Sklar | Our first journalists in residence
May and June 2022 were certainly our busiest months in the past academic year. In the midst of hive-like buzzing and humming at the Hub also arrived our first two COmplex SYstems Journalists in Residence: W. Wayt Gibbs in May and Aleszu Bajak in June.
And Julia Sklar joined the Hub in November 2022.
W. Wayt Gibbs: all about climate change
Wayt is a senior science writer with a 30-year career as
The project Wayt applied with—and was working on during his stay—is a book intending to present facts about the complexity of climate change and the necessary technological adaptation, facts that because of their complexity are often neglected in climate change communication.
During his whole sojourn, Wayt interviewed experts from within and outside of the CSH. “I didn’t expect to go home with so many interviews,” he said shortly before he left Vienna.
Student tutorial: What to expect from journalists?
Wayt was also highly engaged in communicating with CSH scientists.
Apart from his introductory talk, he gave a tutorial on “What to expect (or what not to expect) from interacting with (science) journalists.” A great opportunity especially for our younger scientists to learn that the only obligation and responsibility journalists have is their commitment to their readers. “Even when we write about your work, we are not your friends,” Wayt made clear. Scientists—like any interviewed person—must always be aware that a given statement is a potentially published statement. “So think well in advance of what you want to tell [or not to tell] a reporter,” he recommended.
Moderating a large panel discussion
Wayt also kindly accepted our invitation to moderate one of our big outreach events on May 30: a podium discussion with [from left to right] Luciano Pietronero, Simon DeDeo, J. Doyne Farmer, Helga Nowotny, Henriette Spyra, and Peter Klimek, reflecting on “Managing a dramatically changing world: What science can contribute.”
Not an easy task, given the large number of panelists.
Thanks a lot for your valuable contributions, Wayt—and we can’t wait to read your book! 🙂
Aleszu Bajak: Data, data, data vis!
Two days before Wayt left, our second COSY JiR flew in: Aleszu arrived in mid-June from Cleveland, USA.
Aleszu is a data journalist working in the USA TODAY investigative data team.
During his stay, he intended to “develop, select, and apply the most appropriate data science methods and social science questions to a self-collected dataset from US 2022 election candidate messaging.”
As it turned out, Aleszu knew (former) CSH scientists already: While teaching and managing the graduate programs at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, he had met Ancsa Hannak (now CSH External Faculty) for instance, or has worked remotely with David Garcia or Anna Di Natale in the past. He reconnected with this team immediatley.
Aleszu was also participating in practically all CSH events taking place during his stay, such as Márcia’s and Fariba’s or Diego Rybski’s workshop. He climbed some Austrian mountains and connected, professionally as well as privately, with many scientists in- and outside the Hub.
“What a privilege to spend the summer in Vienna learning from network scientists, physicists and psychologists about topics as diverse as pandemics, supply chains and misinformation,” he said.
(Unfortunately he somehow managed to escape my camera. So if anybody happens to have taken pictures with Aleszu that can be shared: Send them over! 😉 ).
Tutorial on principles for good data visualization
Aleszu also was so nice to give our (younger) scientists a tutorial. He focused on storytelling with data and the principles for clear and comprehensible data visualization.
“A common mistake is to put too much information into a single visualization,” he said. “Yet, most of the time you gain a lot of clarity by leaving things away.” He summarized this procedure with the words “annotate, curate, don’t overwhelm.”
Aleszu also highlighted that any visualization task should be started with questions like:
- Who is the audience?
- What are my/our goals?
- What is our capacity, budget, timeline?
- But also: What inspires me?
After almost four densely packed weeks, Aleszu headed back home to his wife and adorable kids [he showed us pictures!] last week.
We will miss you!
Julia Sklar: science journalist, and educator
A Boston-based independent journalist, Julia Sklar, was our third journalist-in-residence. In November, she arrived in Vienna, excited to experience the winter season.
She covers health, food, science, and technology for several mainstream media outlets in the US. A number of publications have featured her work, including National Geographic, the Boston Globe, New Scientist, and MIT Technology Review.
Julia worked on a project about urban infrastructure and health outcomes during her three-month stay at CSH. Her goal was to unearth “stories that show us both historical and future-facing models of how human well-being is intertwined with the built environments we call home.”
Julia shared her expertise in science journalism with our researchers during her stay. Two sessions of communication training were conducted by her. The first session covered dos and don’ts for speaking to the media, as well as how to prepare for interview requests from journalists.
In addition, Julia conducted a 3-minute thesis training session. “I do think it’s really useful for scientists — no matter their seniority — to learn how to talk about their research in a pithy way, and sometimes most importantly with high energy”, says Julia.
It was a great pleasure for our academic staff, as well as our administrative staff, to attend the sessions. Julia’s expertise, creativity, and passion for science journalism will be missed.