Modern communication of scientific results makes frequent use of images and figures, however, research scientists are rarely trained in the creation of images and frequently give little consideration to their communicative power. This is a proposal to develop a curriculum and methodology to make new use of the power of imaging to communicate science and to provide a new channel for scientific creativity. The process and the methods will change the way undergraduates, faculty and researchers in science and engineering see and image their work. The project is an unusual collaboration between the faculty and staff of the MIT Edgerton Center, research scientists at MIT, Harvard, and the Scripps Institute and a highly regarded photographer/imager of science. MIT's Edgerton Center, which will develop the subjects and materials, has a long tradition of scientific photography and enjoys considerable support of industry in equipping the Center with modern image processing equipment. A sequence of modules on various topics in image creation and visual communication will be developed in small undergraduate seminar classes during the first year and a half. The materials and methodologies developed in the seminars will become the basis of working course notes/teacher's guide to be prepared in the summers and during the fourth semester. The guide will facilitate the export of the methods to other research universities. Workshops will be offered to introduce the methods to teachers. The new materials and methodologies will: 1) make students technically proficient in photographic and digital imaging and encourage a clarity in thinking about production of figures and images; 2) teach future scientists to communicate better the results of their work to the non-scientific community by bringing an aesthetic component to their imaging; 3) expose undergraduates to current research, by involving them in the process of obtaining informational and compelling images in laboratory settings; 4) provide opportunitie s to understand science through the imaging process; 5) introduce faculty and students to a new way of thinking about science by the creation of visual constructions of scientific principles; and 6) introduce the powerful potential of the Internet to create a bi-coastal collaboration (Scripps and MIT) in imaging science and engineering.
