The Alan Alda Series at UVM

The Alan Alda Communicating Science series began its relationship with UVM in 2015, when Alan Alda, himself, paid a visit to the university. An actor, director, and writer, Alda presented a lecture titled "Helping the Public Get Beyond a Blind Date with Science" as part of the Dan and Carole Burack President's Distinguished Lecture Series.

Alda, best known for his roles in M*A*S*H and The West Wing, had also hosted the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers from 1993 to 2005. His interest in science led to the foundation of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, and his lecture at UVM marked the start of a collaboration that has continued for almost a decade.



The inaugural workshop followed Alda's lecture, bringing together STEM faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral associates and stakeholders for a day-long presentation. Since then, formats have varied between one- and two-day workshops, but the opportunity has remained a yearly offering at UVM.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions added a new dimension to the workshop format, and since 2021, these workshops at UVM have been offered remotely, with the exercises changing to reflect the shift in environment.

The Participant Experience

Workshop content varies depending on the location and audience and center on improvisational and communication strategies (both verbal and written) to help scientists convey information to different audiences.



"This was a great workshop," said Bethany Mihavics, a graduate student with the UVM Larner College of Medicine who participated in the January 2023 workshop. "It really helped me work on framing my talks and presentations with the audience as the focus."

"[The workshop] was also great for learning how to make science communication more of a conversation even when I am the only one talking by learning to observe and respond to non-verbal cues from the audience," said Mihavics. "I also learned a lot of strategies for drawing the audience in. It was probably the best interactive Zoom based anything that I have attended, very organized, no technical issues, and the leaders were amazing."

Future Courses

Vermont EPSCoR plans to continue its partnership with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science by offering more annual workshops.

For more information about the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, visit aldacenter.org or uvm.edu/EPSCoR.