Begun in 2015 as a one-day symposium at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, SciComm went online in 2020 and drew 658 people from 34 countries
Baxter delivers the opening keynote of SciComm 2020, held online by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Photo: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Raven Baxter gave the opening keynote of SciComm 2020 on Aug. 14, 2020. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) held the three-day science communication conference on Zoom from Aug. 14 to 16.
Organizing committee chair Eileen Hebets welcomed attendees, and Jocelyn Bosley introduced Baxter as "our first keynote speaker." Baxter asked the audience to imagine unmuting and screaming into their microphones. "That's really going to be the center of my talk today, is how to find your voice as a science communicator," she said.
The conference met five months into the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, Pew Research Center reported that 43% of Americans had a great deal of confidence in medical scientists, up from 35%. The rise came mainly among Democrats. More than 3,000 academics pledged to halt work on June 10 for #ShutDownSTEM, according to the American Institute of Physics. Ten days before the conference, Reality Blurred reported that Discovery's first Shark Week press release named seven shark experts and no female scientists or scientists of color.
At her first job after her master's degree, in a corporate molecular science lab, Baxter was the only person who looked like her. On her first day as a college instructor, a co-worker called her faculty ID fake and threatened to call the police.
"My philosophy is always that if you love science, if you want to do science, then you belong in science, and that's it," Baxter said.
She then began a Ph.D. in science education. Her research turned up almost 50 years of studies on public images of scientists. In the media, she said, scientists have mostly been shown as white men. "I made it my mission to redefine what the image of a scientist is in America, at least, and I wanted to make a statement to the world that anybody can do science," she said.
Baxter played a clip from "Big Ole Geeks," her July 2019 rap music video. It pairs club scenes and fast cars with lab work and lyrics packed with science.
Baxter tells the online audience how she found her voice as a science communicator. Image: No Coast SciComm video
"As I formed my identity as a science communicator, I really wanted to be my unapologetic self. It was so important to me that I shatter literally every box that I felt I was being confined to," she said.
She studied the video's impact in her doctoral research. She surveyed and interviewed 50 Black women, 25 with STEM careers and 25 without. Women in STEM said the video encouraged them to persevere. "Almost 80 percent of the people who did not have STEM careers said that they at least would have tried to pursue a STEM career if they had that type of representation earlier in their lives," Baxter said.
She closed by urging communicators to look at the boxes others place them in, and at the ones in their own heads. "It's so important that we not only focus on the science but also the communication aspect, and a part of communicating is making sure that you are involved in the communities," she said.
In the question-and-answer session, Bosley relayed a question from a shark scientist about the lack of women and people of color on Shark Week. Baxter urged communicators to tag the Discovery Channel and hold that conversation in public.
An anonymous attendee asked how to approach rising skepticism toward science. "We as science communicators now more than ever have a true responsibility to actually serve, like provide a service and serve our country with information, accurate, correct information, facts," Baxter said. Communicators also have a duty to be approachable, she said, and to start conversations pleasantly.
Baxter answers a question on skepticism toward science. Image: No Coast SciComm video
"Now is really the time to perfect your skills as a science communicator, and as a communicator in general, because we have a lot of healing to do here in our country, a lot of bridges to build," she said.
Bosley closed the session. "I can't think of a better way to end the beginning than that," she said.
SciComm began in 2015 as a one-day symposium led by Dr. Matthew Wilkins, then a UNL postdoctoral fellow. UNL made it a two-day professional conference in 2018. By 2020 it alternated with Kansas State University, which hosted in 2019.
UNL's recap counted 658 participants from 34 countries and 44 U.S. states. Baxter shared the keynote program with Dr. Uché Blackstock, Andrew Revkin and Dr. Christopher Volpe. Six featured speakers and 23 oral presenters joined them. According to the recap, Baxter's message was that "your 'scicomm' should reflect your personality, passions, and lifestyle."
Baxter, a molecular biologist and science communicator known as Raven the Science Maven, was then a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo. UNL's announcement also noted that she founded STEMbassy. In September, Fortune named her to its 40 Under 40 in health.
No Coast SciComm posted the 54-minute recording on YouTube, and UNL shared it with the other keynote videos on Sept. 9, 2020.
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Dr. Raven Baxter gave the interactive closing keynote of SCIENCE TALK '26, the Association of Science Communicators' 10th conference, in Portland, Oregon, on March 27, 2026.
