A man whose career is all about explaining science will make a presentation about the importance of communicating science at Nanaimo Astronomy Society’s first meeting of the fall.
Matthew S. Williams will present ‘Why Science Communication Matters’ on Thursday, Sept. 23, when he will explore why a science communicator’s job of making science accessible to the general public has become ever more important in a time when misinformation and “data fatigue” are making it increasingly difficult to sift fact from fiction.
In addition to making scientific concepts more easily digestible, it’s also the science communicator’s responsibility to be a trusted source who can make important information more engaging, according to a press release from the society.
Williams lives on the Island and is a regular contributor to space and astronomy news site Universe Today and to Interesting Engineering and is director of media communication for Mars City Design. He is also author of The Formist Series of hard science fiction works The Cronian Incident, The Jovian Manifesto and The Frost Line Factor.
Williams is co-author of podcast series The Martian Dispatches, which will première on Space Channel this fall. In 2022 he and co-author Paul Patton will release The Fermi Paradox, a book that explores the mysteries of why humanity has yet to make contact with alien life.
His articles have also appeared in Phys.org, HeroX, Popular Mechanics, Business Insider, Gizmodo, I09, ScienceAlert, Knowridge Science Report and Real Clear Science.
Williams, who presented to the Nanaimo Astronomy Society in 2016 about Mars colonization and in 2017 about exploring ocean worlds in the Solar System, will give his talk following Nanaimo Astronomy Society’s annual general meeting.
The society’s meeting, via Zoom, runs 7-9 p.m. Non-members are welcome to attend one NAS meeting for free. Non-members interested in Williams’s presentation are asked to e-mail info@nanaimoastronomy.com.
For more information, visit www.nanaimoastronomy.com.
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