Graduate Women in Science honors Dr. Raven Baxter with its 2023 Science Communication Award
Graduate Women in Science named Dr. Raven Baxter an honorary member with its 2023 Science Communication Award, a category the society added after 2020.
The Outpost’s first Asteroid Awards honor Raven Baxter for diversity and inclusion in science communication
Skeptoid Media, a science education nonprofit whose podcast began in 2006, created the Asteroid Awards in 2020 to honor science communication, entertainment and education
Raven Baxter won the Award for Diversity and Inclusion in Science Communication at The Outpost's first Asteroid Awards on October 24, 2020. Skeptoid host Brian Dunning and David D. Perlmutter, dean of Texas Tech University's College of Media & Communication, led the online ceremony.
Four months earlier, thousands of academics and scientific groups planned a June 10 strike against anti-Black racism in science, Nature reported. Black workers made up 11% of the U.S. workforce but 9% of STEM workers, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center report. In the survey for that report, 62% of Black STEM workers said they had faced discrimination at work because of their race or ethnicity. Among white STEM workers, 13% said so.
The award recognizes "excellence in ensuring that every child who dreams of a career in STEM has role models with whom they can identify," according to The Outpost. The Texas Tech college sponsored it. The other finalists were the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and Out in STEM, according to an archived copy of the awards page.
The four 2020 Asteroid Award trophies. Baxter is not pictured. Photo: The Outpost
The 2020 awards had four categories. Kyle Hill was named Science Influencer of the Year, Hip Hop Science won Best Streaming Content, and FIYAH Magazine won Best Science Fiction. Locus, the science fiction magazine, reported on October 26 that the winners were announced on October 24.
Baxter also spoke on two convention panels. On October 24 she joined Hill, Ashley Gary and Asheley Landrum on "Streaming Science." The panel asked how YouTube creators fit science, communication and entertainment into a few minutes of video. On October 25 she joined Maynard Okereke and Gary on "Science Doesn't Typecast: Diversity and Scicomm." That panel covered the need for more visibility and diversity in science.
The photo of Baxter that The Outpost posts beside its 2020 winners list. Photo: The Outpost
The Outpost is a convention on science, entertainment and science fiction. Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit based in Bend, Oregon, produces it. Its weekly Skeptoid podcast launched in 2006 and passed 100 million downloads in 2017, according to Skeptoid Media. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Outpost 2020 ran online from October 23 to 25. The Texas Tech college was its chief sponsor.
Baxter, then a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo, had worked as a research scientist in drug discovery before turning to public science education. Earlier that month she founded and co-organized the first Black in Science Communication Week, held online from October 4 to 10.
The Outpost lists the 2020 winners on its awards page and every session on its schedule. An archived copy from January 2021 also records the result.
