Alan Alda, actor, director and writer, is a Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University and a founding member of the Center for Communicating Science, which was renamed in his honor in April, 2013. In his "day job," Alan became famous as surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H, won seven Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards, and created memorable characters in scores of movies, several of which he also wrote and directed. In 2005, he had the distinction of publishing a best-selling book and being nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony, all in a single year.

Exceptional as Alan Alda's artistic achievements are, they are rivaled by his contributions to improving communication of science to the public. Alan's lifelong interest in science led him to host PBS' Scientific American Frontiers from 1993 to 2005, an experience he has called "the best thing I ever did in front of a camera." Through talking with hundreds of scientists around the world, he learned that they communicate much better when they carry on real, personal conversations about their work, rather than lecturing or falling back on technical language. He brought that insight to Stony Brook, inspiring the University to create the Center for Communicating Science in 2009. At the Center, Alan is pioneering the use of improvisational theater exercises to help scientists share their work and their passion more directly with the public. Alan received the National Science Board's Public Service Award in 2006 "for his contagious enthusiasm in fostering wonder and discovery." He also serves on the Board of Directors of the World Science Festival; won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for his PBS series, The Human Spark; and has written a play, Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie, about the scientist who is his hero. Alan's PBS special on neuroscience and the law, Brains on Trial, will be broadcast in fall, 2013.

"Alan Alda wants scientists to cut out the jargon", by Richard Drew, Associated Press

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Elizabeth Bass, MPH, is director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. She developed many of the Center's workshops and graduate courses for scientists and health professionals, and teaches its courses in Distilling Your Message. A longtime journalist, Liz was science and health editor of Newsday, where she supervised reporting that won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. She developed a master's program in health and science reporting at Stony Brook and has taught journalism there, as well as at Hofstra and Columbia Universities. She is co-author of two books, Bioterrorism: A Guide for Hospital Preparedness and KidsHealth Guide for Parents and edited or contributed to several other science or health books for general readers. Liz has a Master of Public Health degree from Stony Brook University and a BA in English from Cornell University.

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Jay Branegan is a communications coordinator in Washington with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international environmental group. Jay joined NRDC earlier this year after serving for 10 years on the staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There he was the principal editor and writer and had policy responsibilities in the areas of energy, foreign assistance, development, East Asia, and food security. Before joining the committee, Jay was a journalist for Time magazine.  As a science reporter for Time in the 1980s, he covered the space program, including the Challenger disaster, and the Star Wars program. Later, he covered the White House and the State Department, and served as the European Economic Correspondent. Jay began his career in Chicago, working for Chicago Today and then The Chicago Tribune, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He has a BA in physics and philosophy from Cornell University and an MS in journalism from Northwestern University.

Lydia Franco-Hodges teaches Improvisation for Scientists at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. She is an actor and acting teacher who has taught Acting and Movement for the Department of Theatre Arts at Stony Brook University since 2003. She has worked professionally in New York City and has directed, produced and choreographed for the theater.  Lydia is a member of the Comedy Improv Troupe, Just Say Yes, and of The Naked Stage.  Her recent performances include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). She has an MFA in Dramaturgy and a BFA in Acting and also is a graduate of the William Esper Studio's Two Year Meisner Program.

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Evonne Kaplan-Liss, MD, MPH, is a Clinical Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine, and in Pediatrics, at Stony Brook Medicine and affiliated faculty in Stony Brook's School of Journalism. Evonne is the Director of the Advanced Graduate Certificate in Health Communications and an active member of the steering committee of the Alda Center. She speaks nationally on the Center's behalf and has presented or led workshops at medical institutions around the country, including the National Cancer Institute. She teaches the Center's course in "Connecting with the Community" and is course director for a Stony Brook School of Medicine elective in communicating health science. Evonne has an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University, an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she did residencies in pediatrics and preventive medicine, and an MPH degree from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

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Valeri Lantz-Gefroh is workshop coordinator and lead improvisation teacher for the Alda Center. Along with colleagues from the Theatre Arts Department, she has been working with Alan Alda on using improvisation techniques to help current and future scientists communicate better. Val has led Improvisation for Scientists workshops around the country and teaches the Center's improvisation course for science graduate students. She also is the lead instructor for the Center's new program to teach communication skills to graduate Teaching Assistants. Val has worked as a theater professional for the past 25 years as an actor, director, playwright, and acting teacher. She serves as the artistic director of Asylum Theatre Company and is a professional video editor. Her adaptation and production of The Tempest was chosen as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Open Stages Festival.

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Steve Marsh is an actor who teaches courses and workshops in Improvisation for Scientists for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. A faculty member in Stony Brook University's Department of Theatre Arts, Steve is an artistic associate of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, where he has directed and acted in fully-staged readings of Brecht's Galileo, and Peter Parnell's QED.  He also is the literary manager of the University's Science Playwriting Competition, supported by the Simons Center and the National Science Foundation. Steve directed SBU's graduate program in Dramaturgy from 2006 to 2012. As department literary manager, he also ran the John Gassner New Play Competition, a national playwriting contest, for nine years.  Steve is a member of Actors Equity, AFTRA-SAG and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. He has a BFA from New York University and an MFA in dramaturgy from the State University of New York.

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Tim Miller is a communications consultant and coach specializing in scientific and technical communication. He has lectured at museums, universities, and government agencies from coast to coast. Tim's diverse background includes extensive training in both the arts and the sciences, and his resume includes work for the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Boston Museum of Science, where he coordinated public outreach on nanoscience. Tim is a trained actor who has studied filmmaking and holds degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. He is based in Los Angeles.

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Christie Nicholson produces and hosts Scientific American's podcasts 60-Second Mind and 60-Second Science and is an on-air contributor for Slate, Babelgum, Scientific American, Discovery Channel and Science Channel. She is a Contributing Editor at CBS' Interactive's Smart Planet. She has spoken about technology and communication at MIT/Stanford VLAB, SXSW Interactive, Sundance Film Festival, the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, and the Space Studies Board. She holds degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Dalhousie University in Canada. She is an editorial advisory member for the Science Media Centre of Canada. She is based in New York.

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James O'Shea was managing editor of the Chicago Tribune from 2001-2006 and editor in chief of The Los Angeles Times from 2006-2008. He was a fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy in 2009 and then co-founded The Chicago News Cooperative, an innovative news start-up that created a Chicago-based digital news site and supplied content for The New York Times. Jim, who lives in Chicago, is now Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan. He has written three books, most recently The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers, which examines the collapse of the newspaper industry as seen through the failure of the merger of Tribune Company and Times Mirror Company, publishers of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. The book was named a Fortune magazine best book of the year and one of Library Journal's best nonfiction books of the year.

Steven Reiner, associate professor of broadcast journalism at Stony Brook, spent two decades as a senior producer, producer and director at CBS News. For more than 10 years, he was a producer for CBS News' flagship news magazine, 60 Minutes. Before joining CBS News, he worked at both NBC and ABC News. Steven has produced stories with correspondents Morley Safer, Bob Simon, Lara Logan, Diane Sawyer, and Sam Donaldson, among others. Earlier in his career, he was an editor for The Atlantic magazine and was senior editor of National Public Radio's evening news program, All Things Considered. At NPR, he established and was chief editor of the NPR science reporting unit, one of the nation's most respected sites for science journalism. Working with the Alda Center, Steven has led workshops in Distilling Your Message and Dealing with the Media for scientists around the country, and has served as an expert interviewer for scientists, health professionals and science graduate students. He is the host of the Alda Center's award-winning webcast, Science on Tap.

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Howard Schneider, co-chair of the steering committee of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, is the founding dean of the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University. Besides offering an undergraduate major in journalism, the school has a master's program focusing on coverage of science, health, the environment and technology. Howie spearheaded the founding and development of the Alda Center and also founded the Center for News Literacy, which teaches students from across disciplines how to judge the reliability of information. Before entering academia, Howie was a reporter and editor at Newsday, the Long Island daily newspaper, for more than 35 years, including nearly 18 years as managing editor and editor. During his tenure, the paper won eight Pulitzer Prizes and built a robust science and health unit that produced a weekly section, as well as prize-winning daily coverage.

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