Speaker
Description
As a particle physicist at the University of Amsterdam I am part of a worldwide adventure that is trying to study the elementary building block of matter and is searching for the answers to the unsolved riddles about the working of our universe. Exciting as that is, I will use this talk to explore the other part of my world: science communication. I will discuss why I think science communication is an essential part of academic life and discuss some of the things I learned along that journey. We will explore recent developments in The Netherlands related to science communication like recognition and rewards, funding opportunities, policy making, research, impact assessment, collective memory and how we are trying to give (working on) science communication a more solid role in our field. I will not be able to resist showing a few examples of one of the most interesting projects I have been involved in: the Leiden wall formulas.
