Robert Irion, director of the UCSC Science Communication Program, will speak at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 21, at a forum organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The NOAA Space Weather Enterprise Forum brings together the space weather community to share information and ideas among policymakers, senior government leaders, researchers, media, and legislators and staff from Capitol Hill to raise awareness of space weather and its effects on society.
Irion's talk is titled "Solar physics/space weather: Stories for all audiences." He will discuss ways to raise public awareness of solar science and the Sun's impacts on Earth in a session on strategic communication, education, and outreach. An article by Irion about solar physics and space weather appeared in the April 2011 issue of Smithsonian magazine.
Irion is a graduate of the Science Communication Program he now directs. He has worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist, contributing to national magazines including Science, Discover, New Scientist, Smithsonian, Scientific American, and National Geographic. He is a two-time winner of the David N. Schramm Award for High-Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism from the American Astronomical Society for articles in Science and Smithsonian. Irion also received the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos (Joseph Henry Press, 2000), a book he coauthored with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Charles Liu of the American Museum of Natural History. Irion is co-chair of the Education Committee of the National Association of Science Writers and a board member of the Northern California Science Writers Association. He joined the UCSC faculty as a senior lecturer in science writing in 2006.
