Professor Eric Henderson has agreed to serve as the inaugural Director of Communications for the GDCB Department. Dr. Henderson said. “I am excited about this opportunity to serve the department and the university. A large volume of recent press in the scientific literature has voiced the requirement for scientists to connect with society in a transparent, effective, and engaging fashion. In many cases the use of social media has become part of the standard operating procedure for liaising between scientists and the rest of the world. I am formulating a multi-phase plan to bring GDCB up to speed in this regard and then continue to inject new ideas and emerging mechanisms for connectivity so that the world is aware of the amazing people in this department and the equally amazing science that they do.”

The first phase of Dr. Henderson’s plan will be to learn about the current use of social media and other outreach venues amongst the department faculty and graduate students. Once this information is gathered and digested, Dr. Henderson plans to create an initial social media presence for GDCB and begin a process of journalistic interviews with faculty to collect exciting content for the departmental web page and its nascent social media outlets. Dr. Henderson anticipates that graduate students in the department and other relevant areas at the university, such as journalism and business, will join the nascent GDCB Communications Committee and will carry out key roles in content acquisition and dissemination.

Dr. Henderson invites any interested party to contact him (telomere@iastate.edu) and discuss forward-looking ideas focused on enhancing the social presence of GDCB.