Thread by @AstroKPJ

Almost all recent breakthroughs in fundamental physics & astronomy are paid by taxpayers. Salaries, R&D, maintenance.

So communicating research to citizens, integrating it with education should be as crucial a yardstick as publishing in journals & conferences.

Alas...

There is just no system in almost any top-ranked institutes to ensure students & young researchers are trained+encouraged to communicate their work to broader society.

NSF grants have an entire section on Broader Impacts. So stop treating outreach as volunteering work.

Decades of looking down on science communication by those at the top of academic food chain - be it the National Academies, directors, tenure or fellowship committees - is the reason for the perpetual “lack of adequate funding from the government.”

It is a global disorder.

Also, just to put it on record, science communication is not a HR job. Nor you need to hire a ‘specialist’. You have to explain your own research. To your colleagues, to the funding agencies AND TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE.

None of that is or should be volunteering.

Bye. 🖖🏻