UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State will host two editors from the academic media website The Conversation (theconversation.com) at 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, in Foster Auditorium, to give a presentation about communicating research to the public.

Science and technology editor Maggie Villiger and editorial liaison Ari Fertig will talk about why it’s important to bring academics into popular media, what’s in it for you as an academic, pitching your research to media, finding your “news peg,” and more.

The Conversation US is an independent, nonprofit source of news and views written by the academic and research community, delivered directly to the public. Penn State academics who write for The Conversation receive their own faculty biography page on the website, access to a staff of professional editors and access to readership analytics for their articles. Past articles written by Penn State faculty are archived on the University’s Conversation landing page.

Since partnering with The Conversation, Penn State researchers have written more than 180 articles that have garnered 12.6 million readers. The site has a Creative Commons license, so other news organizations often republish the articles. Penn State faculty have had Conversation articles republished on national media websites, such as The Washington Post, Business Insider and Newsweek. The Conversation has international website editions in Africa, Australia, France and the United Kingdom.

The presentation will be from 2 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, in Foster Auditorium in the Paterno Library. To ensure space accommodations, faculty who are interested in attending the presentation are asked to RSVP online.

For faculty who cannot attend the presentation, a webinar is being planned for early February.