Don’t Be Such a Scientist

Sponsored by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

Randy Olson is an evolutionary biologist turned filmmaker. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1984 and was a marine science professor at the University of New Hampshire until 1994.

Frustrated by what he perceived to be a growing disconnect between the general public and the scientific community, who appeared either unable or unwilling to explain the importance of their work in language that nonscientists could understand, Olson left the university just two years after receiving tenure to attend film school at the University of Southern California.  Since then, he has founded the acclaimed Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project (www.shiftingbaselines.org) and last year wrote and directed the documentary feature film, "Flock of Dodos: the evolution-intelligent design circus," which will air nationally on Showtime in May, but will also be screened at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh shortly after his talk (it will play at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday at the museum and he will hold a Q&A afterwards).