About
Biological Physics (BP) is an exciting field, with relevance to many other disciplines and real-world applications including human health. Yet, it can be difficult to communicate the basics of our field and the relevance of our research to those outside of our community including new students and the public at large. For example, the first-ever National Academy of Science Decadal Survey on Biological Physics (BP) states that it's time for BP to take its rightful place throughout the physics curriculum, but that it is typically seen as one specialized elective course; many students never hear of the existence of BP as a potential research area until late in their careers. Opportunities also abound for improving our use of social media channels and video clips for BP communication to both the public and students.
Finally, dissemination of our research to the broader scientific community through traditional publishing venues is also challenging given the multidisciplinary nature of the field.
This tutorial will involve experts on these topics holding interactive sessions with participants to explore opportunities to incorporate BP into curriculum creatively, to utilize social media, blogging and videos for outreach and education and to improve scholarly multidisciplinary dissemination.
Topics
- Strategies to incorporate BP throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and existing resources for instructors, including the Living Physics Portal.
- Social media presence (including its pitfalls), blogging, and other such channels specifically in the context of BP.
- Video communication, for example, of key classroom demos that some instructors cannot perform live.
- Traditional publishing in a multidisciplinary field: barriers to overcome and opportunities for improvement including coaching/mentoring new referees.
- DEI aspects of each of these topics will also be emphasized.
Instructors
- Philip Nelson, University of Pennsylvania
- Raghuveer Parthasarathy, University of Oregon
- Serena Bradde, Physical Review/APS
- Daniel Cohen, Princeton University
Who Can Attend?
Scientists and educators interested in communicating biological physics at all career stages, especially students and early career researchers. Scientific communication, research dissemination and pedagogical methods will be described, and their applications discussed.