I love my research and because I love it so much, I enjoy communicating it to the world. I decided years ago that I needed to practice at science communication to become better at communicating my own work. My first real adventure in science communication was launching my blog, Strictlyfishwrap, in 2012. This blog, in addition to some misplaced scallop gonads, landed me a comedy piece on The Colbert Report. This piqued my interest even more in developing a diverse set of science communication skills that I could use to share my science with the world. I started using Twitter in 2013, that so that helped me stay in touch and learn from other prominent science communicators.
Since then I got involved in live storytelling and I am a producer for The Story Collider, started my own radio show and podcast The Strictlyfishwrap Science Radio Hour (which is on hold for 2018 while I’m in D.C.), and have written for various blogs like The Plainspoken Scientist. Some great folks in New Hampshire even invited me to give a TEDx talk where I explained why the sex life of our seafood matters. Since 2018, I was very involved with the ESA Communication & Engagement Section . In 2019, I published an article with my collaborator Gabi Serrato Marks in Scientific American on being scientists with medical conditions and disabilities. We are now under contract with Columbia University Press for our book Uncharted!
Links to my science communication activities can be found below, with active projects listed at the top.
Uncharted Book Project
Gabi Serrato Marks and I are under contract with Columbia University Press for the book, Uncharted! Keep up to date with book updates on our substack/newsletter. The book will be released Summer 2023!
“Uncharted highlights the experiences of scientists who have faced changes to their career, including both successes and challenges, because of their health. It is not a review of the science behind our health conditions: instead, it is a collection of deeply personal perspectives and views shared by the people behind the science. It shares not only health challenges, but the joys, sorrows, humor, and wonder from people who love science — no matter who many barriers they have to face. These stories don’t reduce people to “overcoming” their disabilities in order to be successful; the scientists are thriving (or struggling) alongside their conditions. Edited by two scientists which chronic health conditions, these stories showcase a wide variety of disabilities, experiences, and emotions.“
PODCAST: OCEAN LOVIN’
In early 2017, I co-created the Ocean Lovin’ podcast series with Ocean Science Radio. After interviewing many scientists about the secret sex lives of marine animals, we developed six episodes in 2017.
In 2019, we released five episodes on parrotfish, clownfish, jellies and larvaceans, angler fish and bdelloid rotifers, and pycnogonids and leeches. In 2020 we released episodes on freshwater mussels (a particular favorite of mine) and sea angels and hagfish, 2021 we interviewed scientists about nudibranchs and shipworms, 2022 was all about jellyfish, and 2023 is all about snow crabs!
Policy
I am an alum of the 2018 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program. From February 2018 through January 2019, I worked as a legislative fellow on the Senate Environment and Public Works Minority Staff in Washington, D.C., and learned much about how environment and infrastructure policy is made on Capitol Hill.
Storytelling
TEDx to Televison Events
Radio & Podcasts
Blogging: SFW and beyond
In 2012, I started the Strictlyfishwrap (SFW) blog. First, I spent many years soliciting entries from graduate students about their stories of life as a scientist and student. This morphed into a platform for sharing SFW Science Radio Hour podcasts. This year the website is dormant, but that may change in 2019.
I guest blogged for several science communication blogs including AGU and ESA. You can see all my guest posts here.
Videos, Photography & Art
Teaching & Outreach
SciComm Publications
Societies
From 2019-2021 I was the Secretary for the Ecological Society of America’s Communication & Engagement Section. Fall 2021 I will start serving as a member of the Ecological Society of America’s Committee on Diversity.
I am also the Editor-in-Chief for the Human Dimensions Series in The Bulletin. In this series, we hear about the human dimension work of member sections of the Ecological Society of America. A new piece will be published in the Open Access journal every month starting in November 2019. We will be closing this series at the end of 2023.
Skylar R. Bayer, Ph.D. 