That’s so unfortunate. Maybe my circle is not as representative as I thought. I think it’s such a privilege to teach, mentor, and inspire undergrads both in the classroom and my lab.
Well, first off, I don’t think that it’s for everyone. I guess I agree that we need more scientists doing pubic engagement, but I don’t think we need tons more. There is not an infinite amount of space for it and in most cases there is very little payoff of the scientists themselves. Many don’t have the interest and I think that’s perfectly fine. Many others don’t have the skill or patience and I don’t see any reason to push them. For those that have both the interest and skill, I think they should wait at least until they have tenure, if not full promotion. And sure I would be happy to share my experiences from the last five years. It’s not altogether different than starting a research project in the sense that you start slow and expect little to happen at first, a little bit of planning goes a long way, learn from results/mistakes, and keep at it even when it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere.
I think perhaps an even more important thing to do regarding public engagement is to convince other scientists to stop disparaging it and to see the value in it when one of their colleagues does it. There is a surprising amount of open hostility towards scientists who write popular pieces, go on TV, etc. My first book got officially accepted right as I was about to go up for full prof and when I told my chair that my book was going to be published by Columbia University Press (which is in the very top tier of academic publishers, along with only 6-8 others), he said, “Well, that’s nice, but I don’t know that you should put it in your P file right now because it won’t help your case for promotion [since it was directed at a wide audience instead of being a research monograph].” I ignore that because, luckily, my college admin and departments other than STEM ones saw the value, but he was right on that my department would not be impressed by it. I heard that one person even said, “this book must have taken years and imagine if he had put that effort towards research instead.” So, imho, before we start encouraging more scientists to do public engagement, the more urgent need is to convince the whole community that it should be respected and valued when the rubber hits the road (meaning tenure/promotion). I don’t think it should take the place of research expectations, but should be valued alongside them.