The Severo Ochoa centers discuss dissemination at 100XCIENCIA

by Super User

During the first day of the forum plenty of panel discussions, outreach seminars and talks by first level representatives of the different centers took place. CSIC Prof. Pedro Gómez-Romero, Group Leader at ICN2 and science disseminator, underlined that for an effective dissemination of science it is important that we all enjoy during the process.

The 100XCIENCIA forum has gathered the 20 scientific centers accredited with the Severo Ochoa excellence award to share their research and concerns. They centered in an unusual question: How should we approach science dissemination? The forum, entitled "Communicating Frontier Science", attracted over 200 people to the Teatro Circo de Marte, in Santa Cruz de La Palma, from Wednesday October 7 to Friday 9. Most of the contents are focused on science-related information.

The science journalist at The New York Times Kenneth Chang was the first speaker today, with a talk entitled "Why does anyone care about dinosaurs, Pluto and the Higgs boson anyway?". This presentation took place right after the official opening by the President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Anselmo Pestana; the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Sergio Matos; and the director of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) and President of the Organizing Committee of the Forum, Rafael Rebolo.

During the first day of the forum plenty of panel discussions, outreach seminars and talks by first level representatives of the different centers took place. CSIC Prof. Pedro Gómez-Romero, Group Leader at ICN2 and science disseminator, shared the spotlight with Avelino Corma (ITQ) and Miquel A. Pericas (ICIQ). In his presentation he reviewed the main lines of action of the ICN2 Severo Ochoa program "Nanodevices for social challenges", with special emphasis on communication actions.

In addition to attending the media with great care, ICN2 opens its doors to society through various educational programs in collaboration with other institutions. Some examples are ESCOLAB (Barcelona City Council), Crazy for physics (IFAE and Fundació Catalunya / La Pedrera) or Nanoeduca (UB, UAB and CESIRE). For an effective dissemination of science, said Pedro Gómez-Romero, it is important that we all enjoy and have fun during the process.