Dance Your Ph.D.

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Nature of Science

Art and Environment

Dance

Edward Hessler

Dance Your Ph.D. is an annual contest hosted by the scientific journal Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest scientific organization in the world. "The contest challenges scientists around the world to explain their research through the most jargon-free medium available: interpretive dance."

The winner of the 12th annual contest is Dr. Antonia Groneberg whose Ph.D. thesis was on "how the motions of zebrafish larvae affects brain development and behavior, teasing out the impact by raising some larvae in isolation differences." Groneberg has been a dancer since she was a child, a lifelong passion equal to her passion for science. There is a long standing joke "that my Ph.D. was easily danceable as it's about movement."

The categories for this year's contest were biology, chemistry, physics, and social science. Groneberg won the latter contest as well as the overall contest prizes. The physics category winner is about the use of a scanning technique to detect effects of global warming on trees.

John Travis's essay in Science discusses the contest and describes Groneberg's entry in more detail. The essay also includes links to the videos for each of the four categories. 

The announcement of the contest includes rules and FAQs.