I am Professor Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, holder of the Franz Ollendorf Chair at the Technion’s Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. My academic work is devoted to advancing understanding of the relationship between science education and public engagement with science, an area of inquiry that has become increasingly consequential in contemporary society.
For several decades, science education has aspired to cultivate scientifically literate citizens capable of making informed, evidence-based decisions in both their personal and civic lives. Yet while this aspiration has become foundational to the field, it remains, to a considerable extent, a normative ideal rather than an empirically established outcome. My research seeks to address this gap by examining how science literacy, at both the individual and societal levels, shapes how people encounter, interpret, and act on scientific knowledge.
At the individual level, I investigate how dispositions and practices associated with science literacy emerge from formal science education and how they may inform science-related decision-making in adulthood. At the societal level, I examine the broader structures that enable meaningful public engagement with science, including the availability of high-quality science-related information in the digital sphere and the capacity and motivation of scientists to communicate their research effectively to diverse publics.
My academic training in science education at the Weizmann Institute of Science, followed by postdoctoral specialization in science communication as a Marie Curie Fellow at Cornell University, has enabled me to develop an interdisciplinary perspective that bridges educational research, communication scholarship, and public practice. My earlier work as a journalist, editor, and television presenter further deepened my appreciation of the cultural, institutional, and communicative dimensions of scientific knowledge in public life.
At the Technion, I serve as a full professor and head of the Applied Science Communication research group. Beyond my institutional work, I have sought to advance the field through leadership in national and international initiatives. I founded the Israeli Science Communication Conference series, co-founded the Israeli Conference for Educational Research (ICER), and served as an elected member of the scientific committee of the Public Communication of Science and Technology Network (PCST), one of the foremost international bodies dedicated to advancing science communication worldwide.
My academic and public service have also included elected membership in the Israel Young Academy, where I chaired the Communication Committee, as well as being a co-founder of the Israeli Center of Research Excellence on Taking Citizen Science to School, and affiliations with the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy and the Esther and Herbert Hecht Sustainable Protein Research Center.
I have published extensively in leading journals in science education and science communication and have served in editorial roles at the most influential publications in these fields. Today, I serve as an associate editor of Science Communication. I also teach a science communication MOOC on edX. In 2021, I was honored to receive the Higher Education Award for a Young Faculty Member from Israel’s Council for Higher Education, in recognition of my exceptional contribution to society and the community.
I view science education as a field of profound intellectual and civic significance: one that not only deepens understanding of science, but also strengthens the capacity of individuals and societies to engage with scientific knowledge thoughtfully, critically, and responsibly.
