Conversations with Dr. Lacreu, Part 3: Recommendations for New Geoscience Communicators

Inagural Chris King Medal award winner Dr. Hector Lacreu emphasizes that new geoscience communicators should have both a scientific specialization and pedagogical training. His model has been to educate citizens about geology, not necessarily to seduce them to a geological career.

Dr. Lacreu suggests science communication is most effective when guiding students or any public audience to ask their own questions about geosicence that are relevant to them. For example, how can we help non-geoscientists understand the history of landscapes, the function and evolution of Earth, and the regional distributions of resources and hazards?

In his career, Dr. Lacreu has consistently “aimed to build a culture that values both scientific knowledge for its own sake and the social and political consequences of its application. Thank you Dr. Lacreu for these wonderful words of advice!

The full interview with Dr. Lacreu is available on YouTube here in the link, with this section at the 14:19 timestamp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi8pa-EUBQw&t=403s