What happens at ComSciCon Conferences and Workshops?
Pop talks
Truly a highlight of each workshop, attendees give a “pop talk” about their research in a format similar to a three minute thesis, but meant for more diverse, non-scientific audiences.
Create-A-Thon
Prior to each conference, attendees create a work of scicomm, whether it be a written, oral, audio, video, or visual piece. At ComSciCon, small groups of students meet with experts for thoughtful feedback.
Expert Panels
Science communicators from theatre, journalism, publishing, illustration, government, and more discuss their work and answer questions from attendees during panel sessions.
Poster Session
ComSciCon attendees share the unique, creative initiatives they are leading at locations around the country via physical poster boards, giving attendees the opportunity to be inspired by one another.
Networking
Throughout each ComSciCon, attendees have an opportunity to network with each other as well as with career specialists in scicomm. Many attendees highlight this aspect of ComSciCon as one of their favorite parts of the conference.
Publishing
Many students publish their Create-A-Thon piece in one of many partner outlets that have committed to accepting submissions from ComSciCon attendees. Check out the Publications list to see what ComSciCon attendees are up to!
ComSciCon Flagship Workshops
These annual summer workshops are open to graduate students throughout the US and Canada, and are free to attend for accepted applicants. Our goal is to empower future leaders in technical communication to share the results from research in their field to broad and diverse audiences, not just practitioners in their fields. For more information about ComSciCon flagship workshops, read about our inaugural 2013 event.
Applications for the workshops are open to graduate students from all fields of science and engineering who are interested in becoming leaders in effectively communicate their research to both scientific and non-scientific audiences.
To stay updated when new National Workshops are announced, please join our mailing list.
“ComSciCon was the most impactful experience I have had in graduate school.”
— Lizzy Nand, Yale University, ComSciCon Flagship 2022 Attendee
Local Chapter Workshops
ComSciCon endeavours to offer workshops for specific graduate student communities within individual universities, disciplines, or regions. Like the flagship workshops, attendees learn and practice valuable skills for communicating their research and scholarship in their field to broad and diverse audiences, while interacting with leaders in technical communication from their local region.
To see where ComSciCon chapters have popped up, click on the Chapter Workshop menu option above or check out our past Chapter Workshops page. To learn more about how to start your own Chapter Workshop, send an email to info@comscicon.org.
“My local ComSciCon chapter was such an empowering experience. I learned so much about scicomm and where I can go with my career.”
— Vicki Mercado, Baylor College of Medicine, ComSciCon Houston 2023 Attendee
BiteScis
BiteScis has a dual mission to increase the interaction between the broad base of practicing researchers in science—graduate students—and the K12 classroom. Founded by ComSciCon organizers and advised by a board of experts in education from across the country, the BiteScis program will create a new web resource focused on making the methods and modern practice of scientific research accessible to the next generation of scientists.
BiteScis is inspired by the success of our other initiatives to make the scientific literature accessible to undergraduate students, through affiliated ScienceBites resources such as Astrobites and Oceanbites.
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