September 23: A Talk with Alan Alda and Brian Greene

Alan Alda, noted actor and long-time host of PBS’ Scientific American Frontiers, will go head-to-head with world-renowned physicist Brian Greene in a conversation entitled, “Why Communicating Science Matters,” to commemorate the establishment of the Center for Communicating Science (CSS), the first of its kind in the United States, developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Education by Stony Brook’s School of Journalism.

“Why Communicating Science Matters” takes place from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Thursday, September 23, in the Staller Center and is free and open to the public. At 8:00 pm, the public is also invited to attend an exclusive screening of an exciting IMAX 3D film. For more details and ticket information, visit www.stonybrook.edu/advevents.

One of the world’s foremost string theorists, Greene is a Rhodes Scholar and Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University. He is author of The Elegant Universe, a book about string theory that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and helped translate The Elegant Universe into a three-hour documentary series for PBS. He will sit down to discuss “Why Communicating Science Matters” with Alda, a passionate advocate for solid popular science, who has been leading this innovative effort to help scientists connect with the public. Through the CCS, Alda has been teaching science graduate students to play improvisational theater games to help them talk about their work more spontaneously and connect with their audience. Early reports from students say the workshops helped them in teaching, defending a thesis, and simply explaining their research to people outside their fields.

About the Stony Brook University Center for Communicating Science
Housed within the School of Journalism, the CSS was established in 2009 in collaboration with Brookhaven National Lab and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, with the purpose of training the next generation of scientists to communicate more effectively with the public. The CCS will be expanding the initiative with the help of Theatre Arts faculty members trained by Alda, who is on the CSS national advisory board.

For more information about CCS, please email your questions to the Center for Communicating Science. To purchase tickets, please visit the dedicated page on the Stony Brook Foundation Web site, or contact Jennifer Logan at (631) 632-4466 or Advancement_Events@notes.cc.sunysb.edu.