Biophysical Society Bulletin | December 2018

Public Affairs

Public Affairs

a workshop where I was filmed explaining our research in a mock TV interview. The filming itself was uneventful. The hard part came after, when I watched the video and saw my presentation. I still blush to this day just thinking about it. Don’t get me wrong though — as tough as it was to watch, the experience held incredibly valuable lessons that reshaped my thinking and approach. Critiquing yourself on screen can be embarrassing and difficult, but I’m thankful I had the opportunity to learn from this experience, and even more thankful that I was surrounded by people who wanted to help me do better. When our journey started, neither Matt nor I had experience talking with the press or crafting a message for non-scientific audiences. But after everything calmed down, we realized the time and effort paid off. I was invited to speak at a TEDx conference by someone who had seen me give a recent talk. Matt got to flex his messaging skills when another of his projects (the physics of a zombie apocalypse!) went viral. It sounds obvious, but like any other muscle, effective com- munication is the product of exercise and practice. The only problem is that there are just too few opportunities to give these muscles a good workout with an experienced trainer. The Biophysical Society’s Public Affairs Committee is offering us all a chance to work out our communication muscles at the 2019 Annual Meeting. On Saturday, March 2, the AAAS will be running a workshop specifically designed to address the needs of our community when we’re asked to communicate scientific information in public or professional settings. If you’re interested, keep in mind the session will only be avail- able for those who register in advance (limit 100). AAAS has a great reputation when it comes to running these workshops, and regardless of your skill level, it’s always worth getting in a little extra practice to sharpen your communication skills. — Jesse L. Silverberg, PhD, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University; Department of Sys- tems Biology, Harvard Medical School; Advanced Sciences and Data Research Division, Multiscale Systems, Inc.; Biophysical Society, Public Affairs Committee Congress Still HasWork to Do on National Science Foundation Funding in Lame Duck Session For the first time in decades, Congress was able to clear its National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science funding packages before the start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. This represents a major break from Congress’s recent history of passing continuing resolutions (CR), which provide flat funding, but keep the government open and catch-all omnibus spending packages. This break in recent history has been largely praised by members of Con-

gress, federal agencies, and the research community. However, the National Sci- ence Foundation (NSF) did not receive its funding on- time and its final funding status is still up in the air, as Congress returns from its break for the midterm

BPS is a member of the Coalition for National Science Funding, which supports NSF through advocacy activities.

Trump Administration Signals Cuts for Federal Agencies in FY 2020

elections. Appropriators in the House of Representatives ap- proved $8.175 billion in funding for NSF earlier this year, while their Senate counterparts approved only $8.068 billion in funding. The House mark represents more than a five percent increase for NSF over FY 2018 levels, but falls well short of the research community’s call for $8.4 billion in NSF funding. NSF funding is contained within the larger Commerce- Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations package, which also funds the nations’ trade and economic agencies and justice programs. The CJS bill is expected to be less controversial than the pending congressional fight over the Department of Homeland Security funding package, which contains funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall. However, it is possible the CJS package will see its fair share of controversial amendments centered on climate change and the pending 2020 national census. Research advocates are hopeful the CJS package will pass quickly when Congress returns, but it remains to be seen if the package will escape political contro- versy. Biophysics Advocates

On October 17, the Trump Administration unveiled that its Office of Management and Budget will propose an across-the- board five percent discretionary spending cut across the federal government. Discretionary spending is federal spending im- plemented through an annual appropriations bill and includes spending on national defense, foreign aid, education, research, and transportation. Some analysts are raising alarm bells that this proposed pullback may cut much deeper than five percent, as spending reductions may not come from current spending

—which resulted from a 2018 bipartisan budget deal —but instead from sequester spending levels, which will take effect without a new budget deal in place. To date, Congress has mostly rejected both of the Trump Ad- ministration’s budget requests on a bipartisan basis. The Presi- dent’s budget request is mainly seen as a messaging document and the Administration is signaling to Congress that it would like to see spending cuts in Fiscal Year 2020.

Message Received: The Importance of Communications Training to Your Career

Join BPS for Its AAAS Communications Workshop at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, March 2.

A funny thing happened on the way to a PhD. There was a nagging idea for a project, but it wasn’t an obvious fit for tra- ditional physics research. So it sat in a back pocket for several years, more-or-less collecting dust. Either by luck or circum- stance, a day eventually came where gears clicked into place and things started happening. It began as an in-class project. Then snowballed into a nights-and-weekend collaboration. Before long, my friend and fellow graduate student Matt Bierbaum was working with me, and together, we were putting serious effort into the research. With the support of our advisors, Jim Sethna and Itai Cohen , we knocked heads, analyzed data, and ran simulations. Over the course of a year, we managed to get this idea — the physics of mosh pits at heavy metal concerts — into a fully formed manuscript. And then, something unexpected happened. I distinctly remember waking up the morning our work was available on the arXiv preprint server. Reporters from The Atlantic, National Geographic , and a handful of other outlets noticed the research and wanted to write about what we had found. Each interview seemed to beget three more. Our proverbial phones were ringing off the hook, and just like that,

On November 5, BPS Member Robert E. Dempski , Worcester Polytechnic Institute, published an opinion piece in the Telegram & Gazette titled “Keeping the Door Open to International Scientific Collaboration”. The piece shares the importance of interna- tional cooperation and the freedom of movement to continuing Massachusetts’s success in attracting federal biomedical research funding and creating biotech jobs. On November 9, BPS Member Aiyana Emigh’s piece titled “Scientists, the Public is Not Your Enemy” was published in the Davis Enterprise in California. She is a PhD student in biophysics and the University of California, Davis.

Jesse Silverberg TEDx Yale | 2015

our brief letter led to a flood of print, radio, and TV interviews. Over the course of a few months, we spoke countless times about our results and their implications, all the while laughing at ourselves and the sheer improbability of it all. Behind the scenes, however, the work didn’t stop. Our university’s public relations office took notice of the press attention we were receiving and gave us a crash course in media communications. They taught us how to build and use a message triangle. They taught us how to answer tough questions with short answers. They taught us how to man- age the tension of simultaneously communicating to general and technical audiences. In short, they professionalized our messaging while polishing our delivery. I’ll never forget the most useful, humbling, and fidget- inducing moment of this training. It happened early on during

Robert. E. Dempski

To read these articles, visit the BPS News- room at https:/www.biophysics.org/news- room/category/opinion. If you are interest- ed in participating in our opinion piece program, please visit our Advocacy Toolkit on www.biophysics.org. Aiyana Emigh

December 2018

December 2018

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