Carlyn Buckler is an associate professor of practice in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science. She teaches three innovative classes, heads up the Master of Professional Studies Hemp Science Focus Area, and is active in the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus. We recently asked her about the many hats she wears.
Just what is a Professor of Practice?
Typically, it’s someone who brings at least 10 years of experience to a position in academia. In my case, I did genetics research – mostly maize and some human genetics. Then I spent another 12 years working on projects in communicating science to the public.
Why the transition from research to communications?
Back in graduate school in the '90s, most of us weren’t trained how to do a professional talk to our peers or how to explain the significance of our work to the general public. We were supposed to learn by watching fellow academics, many of whom were similarly untrained in science communication. I remember researchers handing off calls from the media to postdocs because they didn’t want to be misquoted or didn’t realize how important it was to explain what they were doing and why.
That’s a huge problem. In the most basic sense, the public finances scientific research through their elected representatives in Congress. But much of the public doesn’t understand and/or trust science.
I started working on science communication with our son’s preschool classmates. Kids are born scientists – as long as we can foster their curiosity. When we moved to Ithaca in the early 2000’s, the Paleontological Research Institution’s (PRI) Museum of the Earth had just opened up, and I worked for PRI writing National Science Foundation grants for public outreach.
PRI has been at the forefront of helping the public understand issues like climate change, fracking, and evolution. We put out a series of short guides that didn’t necessarily take a stance on the issues. Rather, they helped people understand the facts so they could make informed decisions for themselves.
We also developed the first graduate-level online course on how to communicate science to the public. It went viral and was later taken over by the Earth System Science Education Alliance, of which PRI is a member.
From there, I co-developed the first master’s program in science museum studies with Dr. Gretchen Sorin at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY. I led and taught the program for five years. Then I got a call from SIPS director Chris Smart in 2017.
