“Use your communication skills”

Name:

Anthony Ramirez-Salazar

Degree:

PhD Earth Sciences

Graduated:

2022

Current role:

Postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Editor-in-Chief of Planeteando

How are you helping to tackle the climate crisis?

By actively participating in the communication of scientific knowledge through the Spanish-speaking Earth and Environmental Sciences SciComm platform “Estudios Planeteando”.

How did you get to where you are now?

I started my SciComm journey during the second half of my undergraduate degree, first facilitating interactive workshops to different audiences and then by training younger students interested in SciComm. Later, I was invited to participate as a columnist at Planeteando where I wrote about geological phenomena, Earth’s history and the Anthropocene/Capitalocene. This helped me get the role of Editor-in-Chief of Planeteando and getting involved in other different projects within the organization.

What do you do as part of your role?

In Planeteando I help with different activities. My main duty is to handle our blog, where we publish original content and English to Spanish translations of original articles published in Eos.org. These articles are focused on different aspects of our planet, most of them tackling issues related to the Climate Crisis. I also help with the organization of the science fair “Tierra Fest” where more than 50 organization gather to share important knowledge about the Climate Crisis through workshops, talks, art and drag shows. Moreover, I am involved in the organization of the environmental movie festival “TierraFilme”, where we showcase short films and movies that reflect the issues of the Climate Crisis, but that also give alternatives and hopes to the typical apocalyptic views of our future. Within TierraFilme we have created an annual short film contest where, mainly Mexican, creators can share their Earth-related audiovisual material. Among these activities I am also in charge of undergraduate students that volunteer in Planeteando. I sometimes participate on the writing of podcasts and video scripts with environmental-related contents.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love sharing science content that is accessible to non-scientific audiences. I think knowledge is a powerful and needed tool we all can use to better co-exist with home planet and fellow co-habitants, to demand better policies or just to feel the joy of understanding our surroundings. I also like that it keeps me updated in different science-related topics and that I get to learn with all the people I interact with.

What advice would you give to University of Leeds students wanting to pursue a similar career?

SciComm can be a rocky path, but it is also a very broad one. During my journey I have learned we can do SciComm pretty much in any way we can imagine, the limit is only our minds. So, my main advice would be that students should identify their strengths and do something where they can use it. Are you good at writing? Pitch some content to science news portals, or help with scripts (e.g. videos or podcast). Are you an eloquent talker? Maybe do some videos or start a podcast. Do you have great artistic skills? Do some illustrations, sculptures, slow-motion videos. Do you like acting? Create a play or do some standup. The list goes on, but you get it. In order to fight the climate crisis, we need to tackle it in all the directions we can, so you can use anything in baggage skill to spread information and help a bit. The last thing I could say is that to spread accurate and updated information, we should always do research, so do not underestimate the research skills you got from uni.

Are there any resources that you would recommend to individuals interested in pursuing a climate-related career?

I think the best way to do it is to consume SciComm content in different platforms: blogs, YouTube, Podcasts, etc. If you speak Spanish of course check out Planeteando!