Anthony researches and teaches science communication. His goal is to help scientists become more effective, introspective, and gratified communicators. His research largely focuses on scientists’ public engagement activities, but his work also examines media representations of science and environmental issues, and the contributions of journalism and entertainment media to public perceptions of science.
Recently, Anthony’s work has examined factors influencing scientists’ likelihood to engage in public communication, how scientists identify and prioritize goals for public engagement, and the growing infrastructure of stakeholders that support scientist communicators (e.g., science communication training and fellowship programs, professional scientific societies).
Anthony has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Rita Allen Foundation, and many other philanthropies.
In addition to his role as an associate professor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at The University of Texas at Austin, he is the program director of science communication in the UT Center for Media Engagement. In this role, he oversees a science communication research lab that typically has more than 10 graduate and undergraduate student investigators. Anthony is also the faculty committee chair of UT’s cross-disciplinary minor in science communication, and he regularly teaches courses focused on science communication at undergraduate and graduate levels.
In addition to being awarded The University of Texas System’s highest teaching honor (the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award) in 2016, Anthony received the Ellen A. Wartella Award for Distinguished Research from the UT Moody College of Communication in 2012. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication recently honored Anthony with the Sharon Dunwoody Award for early career achievement in teaching and research, and he was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2014.
Anthony earned his Ph.D. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011, a master’s degree from the University of Delaware (Communication Research, 2005), and a bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College (Media & Communication, 2000). Prior to graduate school, Anthony worked in strategic communication for the Drexel Academy of Natural Sciences, a natural history museum and scientific research institution operating in Philadelphia since 1812.
