Joshua Schimel, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology and chair of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara, is one of 18 academic environmental scientists from the U.S. and Canada to be awarded an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship this year.
As a Leopold Fellow, Schimel will receive intensive communication and leadership training in how to deliver scientific information more effectively to policymakers, the news media, business leaders and the general public.
The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program is based at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment.
Each fellow participates in two week-long training sessions that include practice interviews with journalists and a mock Congressional hearing at which they practice giving testimony.
The fellowship also offers peer networking and mentoring through the program's network of advisors, trainers and past participants.
Fellows are chosen for their outstanding scientific qualifications, demonstrated leadership ability and strong interest in communicating science beyond traditional academic audiences.
"Being able to communicate ideas and results is an integral component of great science, and the larger the audience that one can reach the greater the impact and leadership one manifests," according to Martin Moskovits, dean of science at UCSB.
"Schimel is already a great scientific leader.
This will undoubtedly make him an even better one."
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