From Research to Audience: Communicating Atmospheric and Climate Science Across Academic and Public Contexts
iHARP Talk Tuesday Event
From Research to Audience: Communicating Atmospheric and Climate Science Across Academic and Public Contexts
Presented by Dr. Maria Molina
Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at University of Maryland, College Park and iHARP Synergy Incentives Program (SIP) recipient
Abstract: This seminar explores the challenges of communicating atmospheric and climate science across academic and public settings. Scientific communication within the field often depends on technical language, quantitative evidence, and methodological detail, while public communication requires clarity, accessibility, and responsiveness to audience concerns. Focusing on uncertainty, risk, and prediction, the seminar considers how researchers can communicate complex scientific knowledge in ways that are both rigorous and publicly engaged. The seminar asks how scientists can make deliberate choices about the forms of engagement they can realistically and ethically sustain. In doing so, it frames communication not simply as outreach, but as a strategic, ethically grounded, and professionally consequential dimension of atmospheric and climate science.
Bio: Dr. Maria J. Molina is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research broadly focuses on using machine learning for Earth systems understanding, prediction, and predictability. Maria serves as a member of the US Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Predictability, Predictions, and Applications Interface panel and of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Scientific Steering Group for the Earth System Modeling and Observations (ESMO) core project. Recently, Maria earned the NASA Early Career Investigator Program in Earth Science award.