Careers Beyond Academia: Communication

To learn more about what communication professionals are thinking about, consider joining one of these groups if you are in any field of study:

American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)
Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI)
Medical Science Liaison Society
National Association of Science Writers (NASW)
Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) network
Society for Technical Communication

Or get active in the professional society in your field of study to promote the work they do. This can be where you get experience that can lead to editing roles or other careers involving communication and outreach. The Open Notebook is a non-profit that houses tools and resources to help hone writing, mentor, and more.

On campus, Cornell has a great assemblage of science communication resources along with more information about the undergraduate minor

Join the Friends of Cornell SciComm (FOCUS) LinkedIn group

Learn what several communication professionals in various roles love and hate about their jobs, in a fantastic presentation by Merry Buckley.

Listen to the podcast on communicating effectively by Jeff Niederdeppe through TeachBetter.

Look at the LinkedIn profiles and reach out to Careers Beyond Academia mentors about how they use communication skills in their career to: 

• Write and speak effectively for a range of purposes, audiences, and contexts
• Identify, assess, and use reliable and valid information sources
• Communicate with visual and digital tools effectively
• Use their communication skills to advocate for policy

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins
Mark Bayer BA Government & History
Tisha Bohr (postdoctoral alumna)
Lauren Chambliss
Denise DiRienzo
Nadia Drake BA'02 PhD'09 Genetics
Sarah Davidson Evanega PhD'08 Plant Biology
Kitty Gifford
Ronda Hamm PhD'08 Entomology
Allison Jack PhD12 Plant Pathology & Plant Microbe Biology
Len Johnson
Megan Keller
Karen Kindle BS'73 Biochemistry
Mark Lawrence
Peter Leipzig
Bruce Lewenstein 
Tiffany Lohwater
Linda Mikula
Barbara Mink MA'85 History
Julia Nolte PhD'23
Melissa Osgood
Ana Maria Porras (postdoctoral alumna)
Andrew Quagliata
Colleen Kearns, sponsored research grants & contracts
Lyza Maron PhD'06 Plant Biology, InteliSpark
Jennifer Miller
Fanuel Muindi
Vandana Raghavan PhD'19 BMCB
Beth Rhoades, science communicator
Bob Riter, Executive Dir. of Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes
Robert Ross, Associate Director for Outreach at Paleontological Research Institution
Andy Sanchez PhD'22 Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Mark Sarvary PhD'06 Entomology
Luisa Torres (postdoctoral alumna)
Sharon Tregaskis BS'95
Lesley Yorke
Adele Zhou PhD'18 Genetics
Daniel Zinshteyn PhD'19 Genetics

Check out this De-Jargonizer Tool to see if your talk/abstract/presentation/summary is accessible to all smart, curious people who aren't in your field.

This Jobscan Tool might boost your chances at being selected for an interview by checking if you included keywords in the job description on your resume and other application materials.

Want some tips to improve your Storylines? The narrative?

BioRender is widely used software for scientific illustration in the life sciences. Use it to create professional quality figures, slides and posters.  The free tier limits the number and quality of figures, and limits publication rights. Paid access is available at a discount from the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology.  Contact brc_director@cornell.edu to request access to the paid features.

Careers Beyond Academia holds regular workshops to help you hone skills needed for your professional future. Explore our calendar of events to see which ones match your availability and interests. We routinely advertise activities from on and off campus and sometimes offer to reimburse for your travel to nearby workshops. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs. The Careers Beyond Academia listserv communication includes many more opportunities.

Cornell provides a subscription to Nature Masterclasses. All Cornell students, faculty, and staff can take any courses available through Nature Masterclasses including Scientific Writing and Publishing; Finding Funding Opportunities; Data Analysis; Networking for Researchers; and more. You must register your account using your Cornell email address.

• COMM 5660 Science Communication Workshop (1 cr. B. Lewenstein) A weekend workshop offered fall and spring that trains researchers in the sciences (including natural sciences, engineering, experimental social sciences, etc.) to communicate effectively with non-scientists such as policymakers, political stakeholders, the media, and the general public. Training activities may include role-play, reading/discussion, writing press releases and other outreach materials, and discussion with invited speakers.
• BIOMS 5665 Community Based Research Presentations and Discussions (1 cr. R. Weiss) This seminar series provides a forum for interactions between cancer research students and cancer patients and their care givers. Through this course, students meet and interact with cancer patients and develop skills in communicating science to the public.
• ENGRG 3360 Developing STEM Storytelling Skills with WSKG Public Media and PBS NewsHour (3 cr. J. Nucci) If you can't communicate your engineering ideas, then their potential can't be realized. This course tackles the challenge of 21st century science and engineering communication by providing instruction and practice creating innovative presentations and videos, which may ultimately become part of PBS Learning Media, a nationally distributed educational resource.
• PHYS 7679 Finding Your Scientific Voice (3 cr. I. Cohen) This course workshops your 10 minute scientific presentations in a safe and playful environment. You will develop performance practices that enable you to tell a credible and entertaining story in a confident manner. Don't miss this opportunity to hone your research presentation skills from top to bottom.
• COMM 6860 Risk Communication (3 cr. D. Balog-Way) Examines the theory and research related to the communication of scientific information about environmental, agricultural, food, health, and nutritional risks.
• COMM 6660 Public Engagement in Science (3 cr. B Lewenstein) This seminar explores the scholarly literature addressing the links between "public engagement" and earlier concerns about sciences literacy, public understanding of science, and outreach; and the intersections between literature in communication and in science studies on issues involving the relationships among science(s) and public(s).
• COMM 6760 Public Health Communication (3 cr. J. Niederdeppe) Provides an overview of theory and research on public communication related to health behavior and policy change. Topics include theories of behavior change and message effects; formative and evaluative research; campaigns related to cancer, AIDS, obesity, smoking, nutrition, and drug use; and heterogeneity in campaign effects between populations.

Lifeology offers free courses to learn in depth about various science communication topics, such as Culturally Relevant Science Communication, creating an analogy, countering misinformation, art and science, building trust, and much, much more.

SCOPE is a free online scicomm certification programme.

Remember to look around for opportunities for you to get communication experience to include in your resume, and build your portfolio of communication samples. Many graduate students and postdocs find time to prioritize side projects either solo or as a part of a team to:

• start a scicomm group or lead outreach activities
• organize and run a ComSciCon Symposium
• contribute to written blogs, podcasts, or video blogs
• write a popular science, trade magazine, or opinion article
• advocate for policy change
• apply for a fellowship
• host a panel discussion
• mentor others in their written submissions

Others have initiated more time intensive activities to:

• write a popular book about a research field
• start a non-profit to improve access to science
• initiate a chapter within a professional organization
• become an editor of a communication journal
• intern in a communication role
• become a policy, TED, or AAAS fellow