March 16, 2015
Melody Brown Burkins, the new associate director at Dartmouth’s Dickey Center for International Understanding, is available to comment on a range of issues in science policy and diplomacy.
Specifically, she can discuss the importance of:
- science and technology in developing policy and diplomacy
- effective science communication
- public engagement by scientists and engineers in government and other civic institutions
- educating young leaders in policy, diplomacy, science and engineering in how these respective fields work and overlap
The National Academies recently appointed Burkins to its Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO), whose mission is to strengthen science for the benefit of society through U.S. leadership, collaboration and representation in international scientific organizations and initiatives. BISO reports back to leadership in the National Academies, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the State Department, among others.
At Dartmouth, Burkins oversees program and research development with faculty, students and partners in the Dickey Center’s five “pillars” of focus: global health, international security, human development, gender equity and the environment. Burkins, an earth systems scientist by training, previously served as the energy and environment policy advisor to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and spent more than a decade in leadership roles at the University of Vermont advancing strategic engagements, multidisciplinary research and initiatives in science, technology, engineering, math and economic development. She received a master’s degree and doctorate from Dartmouth’s Earth Sciences department and Earth, Ecosystem, and EcologicalSciences program.
Burkins can reached at Melody.B.Burkins@dartmouth.edu.
