At Virginia Tech's Kelly Lecture, Dr. Raven Baxter offers science communication as an answer to misinformation

Dr. Raven Baxter gave Virginia Tech's Hugh and Ethel Kelly Lecture on November 6, 2024, in the Haymarket Theatre at Squires Student Center in Blacksburg. Her subject was the responsibility scientists carry to counter misinformation, and she offered science communication as an answer.

The lecture came weeks after Hurricane Helene struck Southwest Virginia. Virginia Cooperative Extension's preliminary estimate put farm damage there at more than $125 million. In communities along the storm's path, local officials and relief agencies warned that false rumors were hindering recovery, CNN reported.

After Helene and Hurricane Milton, meteorologists also faced harassment and threats amid conspiracy theories about the storms, according to The New York Times. Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, described "a palpable difference in tone and aggression toward people in my field."

Trust in scientists had fallen since early in the pandemic. In a Pew Research Center survey published in November 2023, 23% of Americans had a great deal of confidence in scientists, down from 39% in 2020. Pew's next survey, taken in late October 2024 and published eight days after the lecture, found that confidence had stopped falling. It also found that 45% of Americans described research scientists as good communicators.

Baxter described her approach in a Virginia Tech News preview published October 19. Science communication, she said, is "about speaking with intention, empathy, confidence, and understanding." She added, "To do this, we must become a public reservoir of verified information willing to speak with conviction and authority."

Virginia Tech billed the talk as a guide to the skills, actions and public presence a scientist needs to become an expert communicator.

Baxter on stage during the lecture. Photo: Amber Yost for Virginia Tech

Stefan Duma, director of the university's Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, introduced her. In the preview, Duma said, "Her own experiences as a scientist coupled with her track record using digital platforms to educate the public on critical matters like Covid-19 make her a reliable source for this topic."

The audience at the Kelly Lecture. Photo: Amber Yost for Virginia Tech

The institute hosts the series with the College of Engineering. It began in 2013 with funds from the estate of Ethel Kelly, in honor of her husband, Hugh. A 1937 Virginia Tech electrical engineering graduate, he worked at AT&T's Bell Laboratories on projects including the 1962 launch of the Telstar communications satellite. The same year the series began, the institute's headquarters was renamed Kelly Hall.

Nobel laureate Steven Chu, the former U.S. Secretary of Energy, gave the first lecture to more than 1,000 members of the Virginia Tech community. Later speakers include Nobel laureate Eric Betzig, Pulitzer Prize winners Ed Yong and Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

In feedback after the lecture, the organizers called Baxter "very personable, engaging, and insightful," adding that her message on "managing miscommunication through good communication is important for all professionals."

Baxter is a molecular biologist whose lab work included drug discovery research. She earned her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo, where her research focused on science communication.

The Kelly Lecture Series page lists the series' past speakers, and the Virginia Tech News preview describes the lecture and its host.