Andrew Dessler to Give Players a Taste of What It Is Like to Be a Scientist

CAREERS

ONLINE GAMES TURNING POINT Research role play A free online game that simulates health- research projects in a virtual world aims Andrew Dessler to give players a taste of what it is like to be a scientist. In Power of Research (www.powerofresearch.eu), launched on Andrew Dessler, an atmospheric scientist at 23 February by Biolution, a life-sciences Texas A&M University in College Station, consultancy in Vienna, players imitate was named one of 21 Google Science the life of a researcher by choosing an Communication Fellows on 21 February. institute and research topic, preparing for experiments, applying for funding, What attracted you to climate research? seeking staff, publishing results, attending After my BA in physics at Rice University in conferences and collaborating with others. Houston, I was sick of school. I worked for They need to be good at negotiation and an investment bank on Wall Street for two time management. As players improve, years before realizing that I wasn’t motivated they can win awards or become an institute by money — instead, I wanted to work on leader. The game was developed with a interesting problems. My father, an aca- €617,000 (US$849,000) grant from the demic, suggested that the environment was European Commission (EC), and is based going to be rife with difficulties in the future. on actual institutes and projects in the EC’s Scientists had just discovered the ozone research funding programme. hole, so I worked on stratospheric ozone at the University of Maryland in College Park enamoured with blogging, until I realized how until the mid-1990s, when it was clear that repetitive it was to keep answering the same UNITED STATES the problem was essentially solved by the questions. I decided I wanted a more high- Montreal Protocol — the international agree- impact way to spend my time. Rise in female scientists ment banning ozone-depleting chemicals. The proportion of women occupying What did you think of ‘Climategate’ — the academic positions in biological and life What did you then focus your research on? release of hundreds of leaked e-mails from sciences in the United States has risen I looked for a big problem where I could make the University of East Anglia in Britain? slightly since 2001, finds a report by the a contribution. I had worked on stratospheric It was a disaster. From a public debate stand- US National Science Foundation (NSF). water vapour previously, and moved down point, it was a huge setback. The University Women, Minorities and Persons with through the atmosphere to the troposphere to of East Anglia has been exonerated of any Disabilities in Science and Engineering: focus on the role of water vapour in climate. It wrongdoing. But regardless, theirs is only a 2011 says that women made up 31% of life took three to five years to make the transition small part of the evidence supporting climate- scientists in 2001, and 36% in 2008. The to publishing entirely on climate research. change theory. Unfortunately, it is the kind of growth matches the increasing number thing that is going to be with us for a long time. of women earning doctorates in the field, How and why did you enter the policy arena? says Bobbie Mixon, an NSF spokesman. I heard that the White House Office of Science Are you uneasy about stepping into the fray? The report, released on 28 February, also and Technology Policy (OSTP) was looking No. I’m convinced that the risks of climate found that by 2008, the overall number for someone. I had no idea what it would be change are severe. I view it as a moral respon- of life scientists working in industry and like, but thought it would be a valuable experi- sibility to communicate those risks in the academia was 16% less than at its 23-year ence — even if it slowed down my research a same way that if a train is heading for a small peak in 2006. Mixon links the decline to bit. I was there for the last year of the Clinton child, I’ve got to run and pull the child off pharmaceutical and biotechnology layoffs. administration. Seeing how people at that the tracks. I’m not one to chain myself to a level of government consume science made bulldozer, but I’m doing as much as I can with an impression on me. For better or worse, my personality and constitution. UNITED KINGDOM complex scientific results often get stripped of nuance by politicians. What’s left — for exam- Have you hopes for the Google Fellowship? Opportunities in wheat ple, long-term data trends — is what helps to I realize I can’t change the climate-change A £7-million (US$11.4-million) research shape policy. debate by myself. I need to find force multi- project into the genetic factors that affect pliers — things that allow a small number of wheat yields, plant size and resistance to How did you begin your efforts to climate-change researchers to have an effect. drought and pests is hiring 17 researchers, communicate science to the public? For sceptics, spreading misinformation is a including 8 postdocs, to work in molecular I helped teach a class at the University of full-time job. But my full-time job is teach- genetics, phenotyping and bioinformatics Maryland on climate and policy after my stint ing and research, and I have to communicate at centres around Britain. The project is the at the OSTP. I noticed that the students perked in my spare time. There aren’t many climate first of its kind in the country for more than up more when we discussed policy rather than scientists in the world. We need ways to allow 20 years, and is one of several worldwide. black-body radiation. I co-wrote the book The a few people to articulate what we know and Researchers will build a database of genetic Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: the trade-offs that society faces. I’m hopeful markers that can be used to create wheat A Guide to the Debate with Edward Parson, that Google will find technological innova- varieties. The Biotechnology and Biological now a professor at University of Michigan tions that will help to spread the word. ■ Sciences Research Council will fund Law School in Ann Arbor. I also started a three-year grants from April 2011, with the blog in 2006 for Grist magazine. At first, I was INTERVIEW BY VIRGINIA GEWIN potential for extension.