Science communication for mathematicians

Talk by Ionica Smeets (Leiden University). Ionica Smeets did her PhD on continued fractions. In the meantime she accidentally became the spokesperson for mathematics in the Netherlands when she started a math blog. As an independent science journalist she made successful columns, books and tv-shows about mathematics for a general audience. In 2015 she came back to the university as a professor of science communication to study how to bridge the gap between laymen and experts.

Title: Science communication for mathematicians

Abstract: How do you talk about symmetry for an audience that doesn’t have a clue about group theory? How can you present a proof as an exciting story to laymen? What is a great visual metaphor to introduce randomness? In short: how can you bring the beauty of mathematics to the masses? Ionica Smeets shows great ways to present mathematics and gives mathematicians some theoretical background from the field of science communication.