Climate change. Gene editing. Facial recognition. Increasingly, the public looks to science for guidance on moral and policy decisions. And a newspaper or magazine op-ed can be a powerful way for scientists to help inform the public discourse. In this workshop, I’ll discuss why you should write an op-ed, and I’ll give tips on pitching your idea to an outlet and writing a compelling essay for a general audience. This workshop is open to MIT Graduate students. Any remaining spots will be open to members of the MIT community starting July 17. Please RSVP.  Registration requested via Careerbridge (powered by Handshake).

About the speaker: Ashley Smart is Associate Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and Senior Editor of Undark magazine. He received a PhD in chemical and biological engineering from Northwestern University in 2007 and followed that with a two-year post-doc at the California Institute of Technology before taking up a career in science journalism. He is a member of the advisory board of the Council for the Advancement of Science writing and a co-chair of the diversity committee at the National Association of Science Writers.