Anto Mohsin, assistant professor at NU-Q, discussed his research on public understanding of science in Qatar at the Qatar Faculty Forum, “Communicating Science in the Arab World” Mohsin was joined by his student researchers, Aisha Al-Qadi and Sara Al-Ansari, and alumna Jemina Legaspi.
The research, funded through a Qatar National Research Fund Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant, analyzes Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute’s public outreach event, The Science Majlis.
“Through this research, we wanted to analyze the attention and interest paid by publics to scientific topics, their reactions to the information experts shared, and the tools these experts used to effectively communicate highly-technical ideas and concepts,” Mohsin explained at the forum.
The Science Majlis invited the Qatari publics to discuss various scientific research and interact with associated scholars on topics such as environmental science, renewable energy, planetary science, and even the popularly debated issue of whether astrology should be considered a science.
“In instances when members of the public were unable to keep up with the conversations, the meetings allowed attendees to discuss new concepts that they may have not encountered previously, and served as a platform for lively discussions,” said Al-Ansari, a junior in the Journalism and Strategic Communication Program.
The research will be presented at the International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences 2017 in London, UK and the ICSSH conference at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand in the coming months.
