Lab History

This archive offers a chronological summary of notable news and updates from the lab over the years going back to 2010. The aim is to document our progress in an effort to keep our community informed of our successes, setbacks, and transitions as we work to make civic science scholarship and practice more accessible to all.

Developments

• 2025-08-21: The lab achieves an H-index of 9.
• 2025-07-21: Fanuel Muindi formally showcases the practice of civic science photojournalism to document and surface new questions among civic science enthusiasts.” Support for the work was made possible from past catalytic support from organizations such as the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Biochemical Society in the United Kingdom.
• 2025-06-09: Kristel Tjandra in the lab is awarded a Schmidt Sciences Communication Catalyst Grant to develop a new program on the CivicSciTV Network.
• 2025-05-29: A correspondence from the lab published in Nature titled “Science communication has a problem – communication” leads to a panel invitation at the 47th Annual Society for Scholarly Publishing in Baltimore.
• 2025-05-06: The Civic Science Times is renamed to The Civic Science Observer to better reflect the focus of the coverage and analysis.
• 2025-05-01: The lab welcomes 3 new interns to investigate new civic science stories to be published on The Civic Science Observer,

2025-03-20: With support from the lab, Rose Leach (first from left), hosts a Civic Science Exchange Cafe gathering of biological anthropologists at the AABA conference in Baltimore, MD to discuss the importance of science communication and informal learning in biological anthropology, along with strategies to impact the public.

• 2025-02-13: ‘Questions of the Day’ program produced by the lab on the CivicSciTV Network conducts a record 7 interviews with scholars and practitioners during the 2025 Annual Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• 2024-11-08: The CSM Lab partners with the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM) to enhance the accessibility and visibility of lessons being learned from new publications and events.
• 2024-11-01: Lab’s CivicSciTV Network is added to the CASW Connector as a resource.
• 2024-10-15: CS Media Lab and Litmaps partner to develop the growing CivicSci-Litmap project.

• 2024-10-03: CivicSciTV Network passes the 500 subscriber mark on YouTube with a growth rate of 27% (last quarter). The average view rate of all videos on the network is around 40% (the average length of videos on the network is 25min). X/Twitter followers are around 3670 with about 400+ subscribers on our newsletter with a ~40% open rate.
• 2024-07-24: Leaders of the Seattle Math Museum showcase their CivicSciTV interview on their website.
• 2024-07-08: As a Simons Science Sandbox Grantee from 2021, the lab attends the third and final annual grantee summit.
• 2024-06-10: The Civic Science Funding landscape dashboard is launched.
• 2024-05-01: CSM Lab receives sponsorship from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC-EDC) for a special series on the CivicSciTV Network about civic science projects the organization has supported.
• 2024-04-29: SaiTV on YouTube is formally renamed to CivicSciTV and launches new promotional video (see below). The network’s flagship program is called Questions of the Day.

• 2024-04-01: CivicSciTV Radio is launched on Spotify.
• 2024-04-01: CSM Lab receives grant from the Rita Allen Foundation.
• 2024-02-02: The practice of civic science journalism is visualized on the publication titled “The growing imperative for civic science journalism.”
• 2024-02-01: Website data from storiesinscience.org, saicollective.org, YouTube, and other databases begin migration to the central lab website terminal.
• 2024-01-15: CivicScienceMedia.org is formally registered, and the website is launched.

• 2023-11-01: In partnership with the Lasker Foundation and Research!America, CS Media Lab launches the 1st dashboard visualizing the landscape of public engagement training in the US. Watch the launch here.
• 2023-09-01: Fanuel Muindi partners with Northeastern University as a professor of the practice with a focus on civic science journalism.
• 2023-06-15: Lab hosts a Civic Science Exchange Cafe gathering with scholars and practitioners in Washington DC.
• 2023-07-01: The Fellows program is retired and is transitioned to a residency model.
• 2023-04-28: Reporter Gina Errico Selected as AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow.
• 2022-12-01: Lab Director Fanuel Muindi selected by the Lasker Foundation and Research!America to lead landscaping project.
• 2022-12-05: Lab hosts 2022 Fellows pitch day.
• 2022-12-04: Former Lab Fellow Sarah Lamm Secures Funding from the Kansas Geological Foundation for ‘Rocks and Rockets’
• 2022-11-28: Interview on CivicSciTV is featured by the eLife Open Science Champions November Newsletter
• 2022-11-28: Capital University features Cohort 8 Fellow’s Initiative ‘Girls in Science Day’
• 2022-11-17: Lab hosts pitch day for 8th cohort of fellows.

• 2022-11-10: Lab hosts a Civic Science Cafe gathering of scholars and practitioners at the Mad Monkfish restaurant in Cambridge, MA.
• 2022-10-28: Lab director invited by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to share insights from its ongoing coverage and research.
• 2022-10-24: Former Fellow in the Lab featured by the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard.
• 2022-10-13: Resident Kristel Tjandra in the CS Media Lab is awarded the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication.
• 2022-10-02: CSM Lab provides inaugural supplemental funding to 5 residents in the collective.
• 2022-09-16: 8th Cohort of Fellows Join the CSM Lab’s Resident Collective.
• 2022-08-30: Lab hosts a Civic Science Exchange Cafe meet-up with local scholars and practitioners in Washington, DC.

• 2022-04-01: CS Media Lab launches an endowment fund to provide a source of sustainable revenue for the long haul to support lab operations.
• 2021-11-29: Lab hosts a local meet-up for civic science change makers in Boston.

• 2021-10-04: The lab welcomes the 6th Cohort of fellows.

• 2021-07-22: CS Media Lab hosts first summer symposium: A time for reflections and celebrations!
• 2021-06-21: Lab is awarded a $35,000 ASCB Public Engagement grant to support the development of a Summer Internship Program for undergraduates that focuses civic science journalism.
• 2021-05-08: CSM Lab Builds India Covid19 Initiative List to Help Donors Find Orgs
• 2021-03-22: Lab welcomes the 5th cohort of fellows.
• 2021-02-14: Lab Director Fanuel Muindi Among 1000 Inspiring Black Scientists
• 2020-12-10: Lab publishes analysis of the evolving structure and diversity of the published human narratives in the Stories in Science project.
• 2020-11-26: Cohort 4 Fellows Pitch their Projects on Demo Day.
• 2020-11-30: Stories in science chapter creation endeavor is discontinued.
• 2020-11-19: CSM Lab receives first grant to develop New Society Art Gallery.
• 2020-11-03: CSM Lab selected as one of 5 finalist non-profit organizations to pitch at the 2020 Life Science and Healthcare Non-profits in Massachusetts Pitch Challenge.
• 2020-08-28: CSM Lab Awarded Burroughs Wellcome Fund Grant to support the development of the fellows program.
• 2020-08-20: The Lab celebrates the inaugural Summer Intern Class.
• 2020-03-27: CSM Lab invited to present at Cornell University by Bruce Lewenstein.
• 2019-11-25: Columbia University becomes the first university to create a Stories in Science Chapter.
• 2019-11-08: CSM Lab Presents the Stories in Science project at the Inaugural Watch:City Science & Technology Forum at Brandeis University.

• 2019-09-22: CSM Lab invited to present the stories in science project by the Columbia Neuroscience Society at the first Encephalon Conference.
• 2019-08-20: CSM Lab hosts Stories in Science exhibit at the New York Academy of Sciences.
• 2019-08-12: Stories in Science project exhibits in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 2019-07-29: CSM Lab Attends a National Academy Planning Meeting on Creating a High-Impact Award for the Public Understanding of Science.
• 2019-07-27: CS Media Lab Interviewed by SCATV.
• 2019-06-26:

• 2019-06-21: CSM Lab exhibits its Stories in Science special series at the 2019 CESTEMER Conference in NYC
• 2019-05-18: Lab’s Stories in Science project exhibits at Harvard’s 1st DIB Conference.
• 2019-04-16: With support from the ASCB COMPASS outreach grant, the lab hosts Stories in Science Exhibit at the Cambridge Science Festival.
• 2019-03-14: Lab director Fanuel Muindi is honored with FAS Dean’s Distinction Award from Harvard University.
• 2019-03-05: The stories in science project in the lab selected for the 2019 Cambridge Science Festival.

• 2019-01-19: CS Media Lab officially launches the Fellows Program to support science engagement entrepreneurs in launching new initiatives around the world.
• 2019-01-01: The lab receives trademark for the ‘Stories in Science’ project.
• 2018-09-30: WBRS Radio Station interviews lab director/founder Fanuel Muindi and Board Member Jessica W. Tsai.
• 2018-08-97: CS Media Lab receives 501c3 Non Profit Status as ‘Stem Advocacy Institute’

• 2017-07-02: Lab Director invited to serve on a panel at ComSciCon 2017 at Harvard University.
• 2017-07-01: Our first book, titled ‘Journeys in Science: Inspiring the Next Generation,’ is published by Academic Press.
• 2016-12-01: ‘Stories in Science’ mapping project is launched.
• 2015-12-03: The domain name stemadvocacy.org is registered.

• 2014-04-22: The lab publishes “The case for a global fund for science education” in SciDev

• 2013-01-01: After moving from Palo Alto to Boston, MA, for his postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, Fanuel Muindi initiated the early discussions about the lab, resulting in the first set of published letters and articles in SciDev and Nature, setting the stage for continued work in mapping the landscape of civic science.