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© 2005 Gabe Lewenstein

I am a professor, and currently Director of Graduate Studies, at Cornell University's Department of Communication. I am also an active member of Cornell's Department of Science & Technology Studies.

My projects—whether teaching, research, or public outreach—all involve public communication of science and technology (PCST), also known as "public understanding of science," "popularization of science," "popular science," "vulgarisation" [in French], etc.

This website contains a brief description of my current projects and a list of selected publications, as well as information about my educational background and my professional and academic career, including current and previous positions, affiliations and activities.

For those looking for an introduction to resources in public communication of science and technology, I maintain a page with basic information, including links and a bibliography.


Current & Recent Projects

Teaching

My recent teaching includes

As a general service course, I'm also teaching Comm 101: "Cases in Communication."

As part of an NSF grant, in 2005 I co-taught with Steve Hilgartner STS 720: "Social Study of Emerging Technologies."

As part of the same NSF grant, in 2006 I taught STS 721: "Archiving of Contemporary Science & Technology."

Professional activities

I currently serve as co-chair of the U.S. National Research Council study on Learning Science in Informal Environments (2006-2008).

Historical analysis

My core interest is in historical analysis of public communication of science and technology.

  • Public Perceptions and Constructions of the Y2K Problem. This project used innovative technology to collect television references from mid-1999 through January 2000 to the "Y2K" or "Millenium Bug" problem. The archive of media clips will be available for other researchers to use. The project was conceived and run by then-STS graduate student (now Director of Digital Strategy and Scholarship at the New York Public Library) Josh Greenberg, with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
  • History of science books since World War II. A historical analysis of the place of books in science communication. The version here is a draft of the chapter originally commissioned as a chapter in the 5-volume History of the Book in America series. I also received support for the project from the 2001-2002 Eugene Garfield Fellowship in History of Science Information Systems at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and I plan to continue working on this topic.

Work on contemporary media

Over the last decade, my students and I have spent some time looking at contemporary media coverage of emerging technologies (or emerging technoscience, if you prefer), especially comparisons between media coverage and public opinion.

Evaluation of science outreach

In recent years, I have become involved in a number of projects designing and evaluating contemporary science outreach projects.

Previous work

Some previous activities, linked to the above projects, on which I'm no longer active include:

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Background

Positions

2007– Professor of Science Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Departments of Communication and Science & Technology Studies. (1987-1993, Assistant Professor; 1993-2007, Associate Professor.) From August 2004: Director of Graduate Studies in Communication.
1978– Science communication consultant, Chicago, Ill., Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Pa., and Ithaca, N.Y. My consulting now operates through Seavoss Associates Inc.
1998-2003 Editor, Public Understanding of Science, published by Sage Publications.
1999-2002 Director, New York Science Education Program (NYSEP), Ithaca, N.Y. Provide policy direction and daily management of consortium of six undergraduate colleges and one research university working together to improve undergraduate science education.
1997 Contributing editor, Science, Technology & Human Values, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1990-1997 Associate editor, Public Understanding of Science, London, England. 
1994-1996 Managing editor, Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, Ithaca, N.Y.
1986-1987 Public Education Officer, Center for History of Chemistry, Philadelphia, Pa.
1983-1985 Editorial Coordinator, Isis: Official Journal of the History of Science Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 
1982-1983 Advertising Copywriter, Stackig, Sanderson, and White, Mclean, Va.
1980-1982 Chief Researcher, U.S. News & World Report Books, Washington, D.C.

Professional activities (selected)

  • Co-chair, U.S. National Research Council study on Learning Science in Informal Environments (2006-2008)
  • Coordinator, Social & Ethical Issues component, National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (2004-2006)
  • Editor, Public Understanding of Science. A quarterly academic journal covering the field (1998-2003).
  • Chair, organizing committee of the Hopkins Workshop of Hands-on Science for Journalists (1999-2002).
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science: Committee on Public Understanding of Science & Technology (1992-1998)
  • History of Science Society: Publicity coordinator (1987-1993), Society representative to AAAS, Section X (Societal Implications of Science and Engineering) (1990-1996).
  • National Association of Science Writers: History project interviewer (1987-1989), Student Mentor project, regional coordinator (1988), Promotion drive adviser (1988).
  • Referee (1985-present): National Science Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom), Science, Technology, & Human Values, Social Studies of Science, Journalism Quarterly, Journal of American History, Knowledge, Journal of Chemical Education, Journal of Communication, Science Communication, many others.
  • PCST: International Network on Public Communication of Science and Technology, founding member and member of Executive Board (1989-2006); founder (1995) and moderator (1995-1998), PCST-L listserv; webmaster (2001-2006).

Education

  • 1987, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science, and Science and Technology Policy.
  • 1985, M.A., University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science.
  • 1980, B.A., University of Chicago, Humanities. General and Special Honors.

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Publications (selected)

Books

  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, ed., When Science Meets the Public (Washington, D.C.: American Association for Advancement of Science, 1992). (Translated and published in Korean, 2003.)
  • Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, Michael Sokal, and Bruce V. Lewenstein, The Establishment of American Science: 150 Years of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999).
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, ed., Public Understanding of Research in Developing Countries (Ithaca: Cornell University Department of Communication, 2003), published as website proceedings at http://www.PCSTNetwork.org/PURWorkshop.
  • Dave Chittenden, Graham Farmelo, and Bruce V. Lewenstein, eds., Creating Connections: Museums and the Public Understanding of Current Research (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2004).

Articles and book chapters

  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "Do Public Electronic Bulletin Boards Help Create Scientific Knowledge? The Cold Fusion Case," Science, Technology & Human Values, Spring 1995, 20(2):123-149.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "From Fax to Facts: Science Communication in The Cold Fusion Saga," Social Studies of Science, August 1995, 25(3):403-436.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "International Perspectives on Science Communication Ethics," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, Summer 1997, 3(2): 187-196.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "Communiquer la science au public: l'emergence d'un genre américain, 1820-1939 [Communication of science to the public: The emergence of an American form, 1820-1939]," in Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Anne Rasmussen, eds., La science populaire dans la presse et l'édition: XIXe et XXe siècles [Popular science in the media and books in the 19th and 20th centuries] (Paris: CNRS-Editions, 1997), pp. 143-153.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein and Steven W. Allison-Bunnell, "Creating Knowledge in Science Museums : Serving Both Public and Scientific Communities," in Bernard Schiele and Emlyn Koster, eds., Science Centers for This Century (Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada: 2000), pp. 187-208 (originally published in French by University of Lyons Press, 1998).
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "Who Produces Science Information for the Public?" in John Falk, ed., Free-Choice Science Education: How We Learn Science Outside of School (New York: Teachers College Press of Columbia University, 2001), pp. 21-43.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "What Kind of 'Public Understanding of Science' Programs Best Serve a Democracy?" in Sabine Maasen and Matthias Winterhager, eds., Science Studies: Probing the Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge (Munich: Transcript Verlag, 2001), pp. 235-255.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "Expertise in the Media," [in special section on U.S. presidential election of 2000] Social Studies of Science, June 2001, 31(3): 441-444.
  • Bruce Lewenstein, "Science and Media," in N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes, eds., International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Oxford: Pergamon, 2001), pp. 13654-13657.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "How Science Books Drive Public Discussion," in Gail Porter, ed., Communicating the Future: Best Practices for Communication of Science and Technology to the Public (Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2002), pp. 69-76 (also published online at www.nist.gov/bestpractices).
  • Matt Nisbet and Bruce Lewenstein, "Biotechnology and the American Media: The Policy Process and the Elite Press, 1970-1999," Science Communication, June 2002, 23(4): 259-391.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "A Developing World Take on Science Literacy," published online at www.scidev.net, 8 January 2003.
  • Bruce V. Lewenstein, "What counts as a 'social and ethical issue' in nanotechnology?" Hyle: International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry, July 2005, 11 (1): 5-18. Reprinted in Nanotechnology Challenges: Implications for Philosophy, Ethics and Society, edited by J. Schummer and D. Baird. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2006.
  • Dominique Brossard, Bruce Lewenstein, and Richard Bonney, "Scientific Knowledge and Attitude Change: The Impact of a Citizen Science Project," International Journal of Science Education, 15 July 2005, 27 (9): 1099-1121.
  • Scheufele, Dietram A., and Bruce V. Lewenstein. 2005. The public and nanotechnology: How citizens make sense of emerging technologies. Journal of Nanoparticle Research 7 (6):659-667.
  • Lee, Chul-joo, Dietram A. Scheufele, and Bruce V. Lewenstein. 2005. Public Attitudes Toward Emerging Technologies: Examining the Interactive Effects of Cognitions and Affect on Public Support for Nanotechnology. Science Communication 27 (2):240-267.
  • Lewenstein, Bruce V. 2005. Nanotechnology and the Public (introduction to special issue). Science Communication 27 (2):169-174.
  • Lewenstein, Bruce V. 2006. Achieving Public Understanding of Research in Developing Countries. Science Popularization (China) 1 (1):47-51.
  • Phillips, Tina, Bruce V. Lewenstein, and Rick Bonney. 2005. A Case Study of Citizen Science. In At the Human Scale: International Practices in Science Communication, edited by D. Cheng, J. Metcalfe and B. Schiele. Beijing, China: Science Press.

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Last modified: 12 March 2008
Website created by Tyson Vaughan (tev4@cornell.edu)