Monitoring Change in Sri Lanka's Valikamam High Security Zone: 2009-2014

After celebrating ten years of Communicating Science workshops this spring, the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science & Technology recently hit another milestone: its 200th workshop. These workshops have provided more than 6,400 scientists and engineers around the United States – and sometimes beyond (AAAS workshop facilitators have traveled as far as Kuwait and Chile) – the opportunity to learn core communication skills and to think strategically about their goals for engaging in two-way conversations about science with non-technical audiences.

Using airborne mapping, researchers are discovering new archeological sites that show pre-Columbian Mesoamerica was “significantly more densely populated at the time of European contact” than previously thought.

The 2016-2017 cohort of Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellows are wrapping up their year, and the 2017-2018 cohort will soon be headed to AAAS for their week of training. While last year’s cohort was comprised of researchers who study various aspects of climate change, the new cohort’s scientific work relates to infectious disease. Their public engagement work ranges widely, however, providing an excellent opportunity for them to learn from one another.