Communication scholar Dietram A. Scheufele has joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center as a Visiting Scholar for the fall 2015 semester, bringing a deep expertise in science communication to a developing focus of research at the policy center. Seven new postdoctoral fellows also have joined the policy center, most of whom are specializing in the science of science communication.
Scheufele, who will lead the center’s research in science communication during the fall, is the John E. Ross Professor in Science Communication and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in the Morgridge Institute for Research. His research deals with the public and political interfaces of emerging science. He has published work on public and expert attitudes toward emerging technologies, including nanotechnology, genetically modified organisms, nuclear energy, and fracking.
Dan M. Kahan, the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School, will join the policy center as a Visiting Scholar for the spring 2016 term. His primary research interests are risk perception, science communication, and the application of decision science to law and policy-making. He has investigated public disagreement over climate change, public reactions to emerging technologies, and conflicting public impressions of scientific consensus.
The new postdoctoral fellows are:
Heather Akin, who received her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and whose current work examines the role of motivated reasoning and media in influencing public perceptions about topics ranging from the nanoscale to global issues like climate change.
Katy Barnhart, who received her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is also interested in intersections and interactions between scientists, the public, the media, and policy makers.
Morgan Ellithorpe, who received her Ph.D. in Communication from Ohio State University, and whose areas of research include media psychology and media effects in the areas of health and risk, stereotyping and prejudice, and moral behavior.
Joe Hilgard, who received his Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Missouri. His interests include media effects, game addiction and scientific reform, including the use of meta-analytic tools to detect and adjust for publication bias, the importance of replication in research, and the reward structures in which scientists work and publish.
Asheley R. Landrum, who obtained her Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her work focuses on interrelated themes underlying social learning: learning about other people as communicators of information (learning to trust) and leveraging that knowledge to learn from others (trusting to learn).
Nan Li received her Ph.D. in Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her most recent research investigates the communication dynamics of emerging science-policy interfaces and data visualizations.
Robert Lull, who received his Ph.D. in Communication from The Ohio State University, has research interests that include media effects, advertising effectiveness, communication technology, and quantitative research methodology.
