Outreach Activities

BICEP2 results outreach

The BICEP-2 result (March 2014) garnered heavy media attention, creating a unique opportunity to educate the public. Some recent examples include
1. Interviewed on Philadelphia's public radio station WHYY (Marty Cross Show)
2. Interviewed for a feature article in Tabula Magazine, based out of Tbilisi, Georgia.
3. Public talk at Griffith Park Observatory, invited by Los Angeles Astronomical Association.
4. Public talk for the Santa Monica Amateur Astronomy Club.
5. Interviewed by Spanish press and Nature News at ICHEP.
6. Public Talk at East Bay Nerd Nite, at the Parkway Theater in Oakland. You can watch the video above.
7. Sunday Science Lecture at the South Pole Station Jan 2015.

Talks to school kids

1. Turning Point Jr. High School, Culver City, CA. “Science in Antarctica” Jan. 29, 2015.
2. Awty International High School, Houston Tx. “A career as an astrophysicist” Feb 20, 2015.
3. Turning Point Jr. High School, Culver City, CA/ South Pole. “Phone call for QA from the South Pole” Dec 10, 2014.
4. Del Mar Hills Academy of Arts and Sciences, Del Mar, CA/ South Pole. “Phone call for QA from the South Pole” Dec 11, 2012.

Deployment Blog



We deploy our instruments to the South Pole Station in the interior of Antarctica. The public is naturally fascinated by our world's final untouched wilderness and this makes for a great "hook" to educate people about our science. The above video is taken from a blog I kept during a recent deployment to the South Pole, which I have shared with classes from public schools in Southern California to compliment geography, history, and science education. While at the Pole, I managed to call up to California for a question and answer session with the kids. This blog can be found here: South-Pole Deployment Blog

The Berkeley Science Review

As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, I worked with the Berkeley Science Review. This collaboration between PhD science and engineering students and graduate students in the journalism department produced a biannual magazine that was written in the spirit of Scientific American, targeting an educated lay audience, but focused on research at Cal and LBNL. In addition to assisting with editorial responsibilities, I penned two articles:

1. A feature article on Saul Perlmutter's research on cosmic acceleration at LBNL.

2. A book review for Tuxedo Park, a book about Alfred Loomis, a "gentleman scientist" who helped develop RADAR for the allies during WWII. (He worked with several Berkeley scientists on this).

Having journalism students critique my work gave me insight into how non-specialists view and appreciate our work. It helped me better appreciate which concepts and which types of logic may prove challenging to people without a physics background. I also think that the press has room to learn about how science works and that more of these programs at universities throughout the nation would ultimately lead to high quality science-journalism than the public currently gets.

Los Angeles County and California State Science Fairs

1. Judge for Junior and Senior High sessions of the Los Angeles County Science Fair in 2011-2016.
2. Judge for California State Science Fair in 2014-2017.
Many of the students in the LA County Fair are from underrepresented minority groups, so this is also an opportunity to build for a more diverse research community for the future. I found science fair research an excellent experience when I was in High School, and I hope that I've managed to pass this on to the next generation.