Athens Science Observer

Founded in 2015, the Athens Science Observer is an outreach organization co-founded by Jeff Cannon, John Spiekerman, and Rishi Masalia at the University of Georgia. Created as an offshoot from the incredibly popular Athens Science Café, the Athens Science Observer (ASO) is a student-run organization science blog. While the café was crossing the town and gown line brining faculty out of their ivory tower, the three of us still thought there was a gap – training. Hell, we were training the faculty giving talks on how best to give a general public talk that was accessible, but what about training the next generation of scientists the fundamentals of science communication? As such, ASO was born.

It was founded with two driving purposes, first train students to effectively communicate their science to a broad audience and second provide a platform for students to post their work and engage the community through a website and social media advertising. While the medium of ASO work has changed over the years from blogs to podcasts to zines, the driving principles of training and dissemination have stayed constant.

Since its creation in fall 2015, ASO has trained well over 200 students across all UGA science disciplines, growing into one of the largest student science organizations on campus. Our content has reached dozens of countries featuring a wide array of writers and writing styles.

Athens Science Observer was born out of a love for science communication, a need to train others in the field, a desire to change culture, and the need for a creative outlet for scientists.
–Max Barnhart

Legacy:

Similarly to the Athens Science Café, I’m incredibly proud of the Athens Science Observer and all those involved in getting this off the ground. I still find myself reading the blogs that come out of the organization, and even contribute the occasional one myself. While Science Café was my foray into science communication, my work with the Science Observer is what cemented it as a driving passion. It can’t be understated how influential this organization has been at the University of Georgia and for the writers and organizers. ASO has received grants, partnered with national scientific societies, and served as a safe learning space for now very successful professional science communicators and YouTube and TikTok personalities.

It’s not a well known story, but we actually tried to launch ASO within a university medical magazine, with all our articles quickly becoming cut. While we had a noble ‘why’ – ASO was equally born out of frustration and an inward desire to show the university that foundational science in plants, ecology, and genetics was as flashy as medicine. Coming full circle 8 years later, ASO is now producing ‘zines, now with a wider audience than the now defunct medical magazine.

ASO Popular Tags:

This has been a massive undertaking over the years, with so many hours of dedication and passion from so many writers, podcasters, editors, copy editors, illustrators, and marketing folks to make this dream a reality. Shoutout to my fellow Editors-in-Chief and News Leads across the years: Jeff Cannon, John Spiekerman, Tara Bracken, Hilde Oliver, Amanda Shaver, Stephanie Halmo, Greg Evans, Michelle Ziadie, Mason McNair, Simone Lim-Hing, and Max Barnhart.