From left to right: Dr. Wiener, Bigad Shaban (NBC Bay Area), Chris Keller (Associated Press), and Gabrielle Canon (The Guardian). Credit: DSE
Last week, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment (DSE) welcomed Dr. Carlie Wiener, Communications Director with Schmidt Sciences, at the third annual communications workshop series for early-career scientists. Building on previous years, the 2026 program focused on science communications training and added a new session on creating data visualizations.
The workshops were led by Dr. Wiener, DSE’s data visualization experts Amanda Anderson-You and Sam Pottinger, and science and data journalists from Associated Press, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and NBC Bay Area. Over 40 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff attended from units across campus including the Energy and Resources Group, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Integrative Biology, Physics, Public Health, Social Welfare, and more.
Now is an extremely critical time for science communications. Yet effectively reaching journalists, policymakers, advocates, and the public with cutting-edge research can be challenging for technically-trained scientists. Dr. Wiener, DSE, and the media experts gave participants concrete frameworks and tools for how to tell compelling (and succinct) stories about their work.
Day One: Crafting a Story Worth Sharing
Dr. Wiener led the science communications workshop by posing a question to the group: why does storytelling matter for scientists? She pointed to the impact of a rapidly changing information landscape—personalized algorithms, virality, the politicization of science, and a significant decline in newsrooms’ resources—and made the case that researchers can no longer rely on pitching “just the facts” to gain interest in their work. This is where storytelling comes in. Quoting marketing and business expert Ameen Haque, Dr. Wiener offered, “facts are like Post-It notes, [but] stories are like super glue.”
Dr. Wiener shares tips for leveraging social media to increase research visibility. Credit: DSE.
Dr. Wiener walked attendees through crafting stories about their research using five parts: the hook, challenge, solution, impact, and next steps. She also pushed participants to use a “backwards design” approach that starts with identifying the outcome a researcher wants, and then developing a story to reach this goal.
In the afternoon, Dr. Wiener was joined by three expert journalists: Bigad Shaban, investigative reporter at NBC Bay Area; Chris Keller, data and graphics reporter at Associated Press; and Gabrielle Canon, climate reporter and extreme weather correspondent at The Guardian. The panelists shared best practices for how researchers can land their work in the press; particularly on what makes a pitch readable (i.e., a specific, timely subject and an offer of interviews, data, and/or visuals to jumpstart the conversation).
Attendees then practiced their pitches in breakout groups and received feedback from each journalist. For many, that exercise was the high point of the day.
“The most valuable aspect of the science communications workshop was the breakout with the journalist where we pitched our research and received feedback,” said Sultan Daniels, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. “Just from this five-minute exercise, I gained a much better understanding of how to communicate my research.”
Lucia Layritz, postdoctoral researcher at DSE, agreed: “Interacting with journalists and getting their perspective on pitches was incredibly valuable,” she said.
Day Two: Communicating Through Visualization
The next day the workshop focus shifted to instruction on data visualization. Led by Dr. Wiener, DSE’s Sam Pottinger and Amanda Anderson-You, Chris Keller, and Sean Greene (Los Angeles Times), the experts shared five perspectives on how data visualizations can function in a compelling story: as representation, as a task, as a message, as an emotive force, and as a dialogue between author and reader.
Workshop attendees participate in a hands-on exercise led by DSE’s Amanda Anderson-You. Credit: DSE.
Keller led a session on designing visualizations: clarifying the question a chart needs to answer, choosing forms that match the data, and editing a graphic the way a writer edits a sentence. Anderson-You then explored what visualization can do beyond a graphic itself, including a hands-on exercise where participants sketched a personal timeline and learned how form, scale, and motion carry meaning.
Greene closed with an outline of four genres of a data story: the question, the “how it happened,” the “how it works,” and the “explorer. His takeaway? Data visualization is just one part of the story, but it helps put numbers in context. The day finished with a panel discussion among Dr. Wiener, Pottinger, Keller, and Greene on how compelling data visualizations benefit academics, the newsroom, and the public.
“I really enjoyed learning how to tailor data visualizations to narrate a story, as well as how to think about your audience,” said Sheherazade, an ESPM graduate student.
“In the data visualization workshop, I was not only inspired by the work that [the speakers] showed, and their knowledge/approach, I also got some concrete suggestions about something that I am working on right now,” said Rausser College staff member Sean McMahon. “So great! Thank you!”
The Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment thanks Schmidt Sciences, event speakers, and participants for making the 2026 workshops such a success. We look forward to bringing the program back to campus next year!