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© Asjad Nqvi © M .Silveri | IIA SA IIASA corner Science communicator Ansa Heyl bridges the gap between researchers and the general public. Originally from South Africa, Heyl joined IIASA in 2018 as the institute’s press officer and editor in the Communications and External Relations (CER) department. Heyl, whose background is in industrial psychology and psychometrics, changed her career path when she started writing about science as a freelancer while studying at the University of Pretoria. “As soon as I discovered science communication, I just fell in love with it – it’s the absolute right fit for me. I enjoy the variety of it,” says Heyl. “I cover topics ranging from air pollution to new model development to climate change. It is never boring, and I get to learn something new every day.” The CER department aims to inform the general public and stakeholders about IIASA research. In other words, it gets the science out there and ensures that the researchers’ findings are heard, for example, by producing Options magazine. For science to make an impact, it has to reach policymakers who can apply the research to change things for the better. The role of science communication is vital as it explains and promotes scientific topics to a non-expert audience. “It’s not about dumbing things down, but making them clear. This is the philosophy I try to follow when writing about science,” says Heyl who completed her master’s degree in science and technology studies with a specialization in science communication and public engagement last year. Spreading the word about science Researcher Asjad Naqvi uses mathematical models to explore environment-economy interactions. Naqvi first came to IIASA as a 2012 Young Scientists Summer Program participant, and after completing a postdoc program with the institute in 2017, he joined the Risk and Resilience and the Advanced Systems Analysis programs. The ecological economist works with multi-layer networks, agent-based models, and system dynamic models to look at how climate shocks cascade across economic landscapes via trade, migration, and financial networks. “Climate shocks such as floods or tsunamis directly impact people’s lives. This immediate impact also spreads to other sectors via labor and goods market disruptions. My area of research looks at how such shocks cascade through an economy.” Naqvi’s passion for science developed out of a personal experience. “I am originally from Pakistan and was living in Lahore when the 2005 Kashmir earthquake happened. Despite being several hundred kilometers away, I felt it,” says Naqvi. “I then spent a year in the mountains conducting field work. Looking at the literature I realized that almost no models existed on the cascading impact of climate shocks in economics at that point in time.” Therefore, during his PhD, Naqvi developed a comprehensive agent-based model on this subject. His current research interests include looking at the environment-economy nexus from various angles such as who pollutes and who is exposed; how one can force an economy to be greener; and how climate policies in the Global North impact the Global South via investment and trade flows. Understanding the relationship between climate change and the economy People profiles Ansa Heyl: heyl@iiasa.ac.at Asjad Naqvi: naqvi@iiasa.ac.atBy Bettina Greenwell By Bettina Greenwell www.iiasa.ac.at30 Options Winter 2020