Speaking Science 2.0

Speaker Bios

Matthew Nisbet | Chris Mooney |

Matthew Nisbet

MATTHEW C. NISBET, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Communication at American University. His research tracks scientific and environmental controversies, examining the interactions between experts, journalists, and various publics. In this area, Nisbet has published numerous peer-reviewed studies, with his work having been cited more than 100 times over the past couple of years.

In addition to his research, Nisbet has co-authored with Mooney several much-talked-about articles at Science, the Sunday Washington Post, and the Columbia Journalism Review. He has also written for other popular outlets such as Foreign Policy and Geotimes magazines.

Nisbet contributes the semi-regular "Science and the Media" column for Skeptical Inquirer online, and he tracks current events related to strategic communication at his blog Framing Science, recently named “a top political blog” by the NY Daily News.

Nisbet is a frequent invited lecturer at conferences and meetings across the U.S. and Canada, and he is often called upon for his expert analysis by major news organizations. He has served as a consultant to several leading government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Nisbet holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Cornell University and an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College.

Chris Mooney

CHRIS MOONEY is the Washington correspondent for Seed magazine and the author of The Republican War on Science, dubbed a “landmark in contemporary political reporting” by Salon.com, a “well-researched, closely argued, and amply referenced indictment of the right wing’s assault on science and scientists” by Scientific American, and honored as a finalist for the 2005 Los Angeles Times book prize in the category of “Science and Technology.” Mooney’s next book, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, will be published in July 2007 by Harcourt Books. His shorter writings have been nominated for a National Magazine Award and included in the volume Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006. Mooney was also named one of Wired magazine’s top ten “sexiest geeks.”

Mooney is an accomplished public speaker, having given numerous lectures at distinguished universities including the Harvard Medical School, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Rockefeller University, and Duke University Medical Center; at major venues such as the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco and Town Hall Seattle; and at bookstores across the country, ranging from Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida to Powell’s in Portland, Oregon. In 2006, Mooney was the keynote speaker for the 43rd Annual Dinner of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, the Edward Lamb Peace Lecturer at Bowling Green State University, and the “Preserving Core Values in Science” award speaker for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals annual meeting. In 2007, he was the opening plenary speaker at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia. Mooney has also participated in the CalTech Social Activism Speaker Series, the Skeptics Society annual conference, and many other major events and meetings. Click here for YouTube clips of his talks.

Mooney has also been featured regularly by the national media. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CSPAN’s BookTV, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NPR’s Science Friday (here and here), and The Al Franken Show, among many other television and radio programs. He lives in Washington, DC.