Science Communication Fellowship

About the Fellowship

GSA’s Science Communication Fellowship is an opportunity for a science writer, journalist or scientist with a passion for communicating to spend 10 months gaining experience and professional contacts, working in concert with GSA communications and member leaders.

With funding from the GSA Foundation's Bruce and Karen Clark fund, the goal of the Fellowship is to help improve communication of geoscience knowledge between the members of GSA and the non-scientific community. Candidates should understand how to interview authors to capture the significance of their work for non-scientific audiences, and translate technical research papers into well-developed and compelling press releases for general media outlets with lay readership.  The Fellow will write a minimum of 12 press releases throughout the Fellowship term, selected from the Society’s top-rated, peer-reviewed geoscience journals and from abstracts submitted by scientists to the extensive technical program for the GSA Annual Meeting.

The Fellow will also help staff the onsite Newsroom at the GSA Annual Meeting, assist members of the media covering the meeting, pitch stories to local and national media outlets, and mentor student interns considering a career in science communication.

Current Fellow

Emily Zawacki
2021–2022 GSA Science Communication Fellow

Emily Zawacki began her term on 1 August as the 2021–2022 GSA Science Communication Fellow. In this role, Zawacki is excited to hone her skills as a professional science communicator while producing high-quality content that makes novel geoscience research from GSA journals and presentations accessible to a wide audience.

Zawacki recently received her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Arizona State University. Her primary research focus lies in the intersection between geomorphology, tectonics/structural geology, sedimentary geology, and paleoanthropology. At ASU, Emily was a member of the Active Tectonics, Quantitative Structural Geology, and Geomorphology research group and the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project where she worked to determine sediment provenance and quantify rates of landscape evolution at localities along the East African Rift. She also completed a Masters in Passing at ASU researching a case of highly explosive basaltic volcanism in the Pinacate volcanic field (Sonora, Mexico).

Beyond her scientific expertise, Emily has significant experience in traditional communications and journalism; she was editor-in-chief of her undergraduate alma mater's newspaper, has written many science-related blog posts, and was selected to participate in GSA’s Science Communication Internship program in 2019. Emily is passionate about science communication and loves to incorporate her knowledge and experiences from the field and classroom to share the fascinating and dynamic nature of Earth and its history. She greatly enjoys conducting science outreach online and has created numerous educational videos for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram on a wide range of subjects. Emily is excited to bring her skill set together as GSA’s Science Communication Fellow, where she looks forward to incorporating multimedia as a means of making cutting-edge geoscience research more accessible for non-technical audiences. Feel free to contact her if you think you have an experience you’d like to share. More information on Emily and her previous publications can be found on her website.