NIST Director Rob Dimeo: Learning to Communicate Complex Data

This is an in-person only event; space is limited.

Do you struggle to communicate about your data-centered work? We have a lot of complex data sources in the government, many of which will soon be shared with the public and with internal staff in new and exciting ways. In this talk, NIST Director Rob Dimeo will explore how “sketchnoting” can be used to communicate complex data in simple ways to both internal and external audiences. Explaining new technology is hard. Innovate with visuals!

His presentation will consist of:

• What are sketchnotes and how are they useful for data storytelling? (approximately 20 minutes)
• A data storytelling example (approximately 20 to 30 minutes)
• Break (10 min)
• Activity: Making a sketchnote about data storytelling based on this Forbes article. Everyone will follow along as we go through the article and draw a sketchnote summarizing the article. (approximately 60 minutes)

Robert Dimeo, Ph.D., is the Director of the NIST Center for Neutron Research, a national user facility for neutron scattering on the NIST Gaithersburg campus. Dr. Dimeo received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1994 and Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1999. His research interests include the dynamics of quantum fluids, quantum rotations in molecular solids, software development for the visualization and analysis of neutron scattering data, and the development of neutron instrumentation. Dr. Dimeo served as the Assistant Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2005 until 2007. He was responsible for working on policy matters involving major research facilities in materials science, interagency cooperation on large scale research activities, and other interagency working groups and remains active in U.S. science policy.