Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science
The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science is a cross-disciplinary organization founded in 2009 within Stony Brook University's School of Journalism, in Stony Brook, New York.
Its current director is Laura Lindenfeld. Its goal is to help scientists learn to communicate more effectively with the public, including policymakers, students, funders and the media. It was inspired by Alan Alda, the actor, writer and science advocate, in whose honor it was renamed in 2013, and is supported by Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The Center offers courses in communication that have been taken by more than 200 graduate students in the sciences and health professions at Stony Brook. It also conducts workshops at universities, laboratories and science meetings around the country. Many of its workshops use improvisational theater exercises to help scientists connect more directly with listeners and respond more spontaneously to their needs.
In 2012, Alda and the Center issued the "Flame Challenge", asking scientists to come up with the best explanation for a flame for an intended audience of 11-year-olds.
