Nalini Nadkarni has ventured to all sorts of venues to inspire nonscientists about science, from prisons and churches, to corporate boardrooms, libraries, legislatures, even rap music stores.
This outreach earned the University of Utah biology professor the 2011 Public Engagement With Science Award from American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on Monday. The award recognizes her "unique, persistent and innovative public engagement activities that have served to raise awareness of environmental and conservation issues with a broad and exceedingly diverse audience."
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In the 1980s, Nadkarni earned a reputation as a scientific innovator after she adapted rock-climbing gear to scale trees in pursuit of her interest in forest canopies, where she explored a little-known web of life far above the ground. Now she is gaining a reputation for building bridges between science and society, according to naturalist Peter Raven, a past AAAS president and president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
"Few people in the world can boast both the scientific pedigree and the innovative science outreach work of Nalini Nadkarni," Raven wrote in a letter of support. "Her combination of creativity and enthusiasm brings scientific information to public audiences who have little or no access to science education."
Impressed with her projects, such as Tree Top Barbie and Sustainable Prisons, the U. hired Nadkarni, along with her entomologist husband Jack Longino, last year from Washington’s Evergreen State College to direct Utah’s new Center for Science and Mathematics Education. Both hold faculty appointments in the U. biology department.
Nadkarni says science education belongs outside the confines of the classroom.
"Although traditionally we think of science and math education as primarily residing in K-12 and higher education classrooms — with school kids and college students — the work for which I received the award ranges into the far reaches of our broader community, for example, with urban youth, prisons, faith-based groups," Nadkarni wrote in an e-mail. "I hope that this award will help open the many doors that will help the university bring science and math [into] the community."
U. officials have no doubt she will succeed in her new role in Utah.
"She is really the No. 1 hot item on the national scene. She has done great things and is passionate about them," said Hugo Rossi, a retired U. science dean and math professor who recruited Nadkarni. "People in [science, technology engineering and math] fields are concerned about public engagement. One reason is we feel it is important to have a scientifically aware populace. The second is this is the foundation for including people into the area. If we want the best people in science, we’ve got to engage the public in the enterprise."
Coincidentally, Rossi himself on Monday was honored with Governor’s Science and Technology Medal for his contributions to education.
Nadkarni helped found the nonprofit Sustainable Prisons to employ Washington state inmates in scientific research and conservation work, while Tree Top Barbie is a program to spur girls’ interest in science careers. Her latest project, the Research Ambassadors Program, helps researchers do a better job explaining their work to nonscientific audiences.
The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. The public engagement award, which conveys a $5,000 prize, will be presented at the 178th AAAS annual meeting in Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 16-20.
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