U. professor receives $2 million federal grant to help public better understand nuclear energy

Matthew Weber, a professor in the Department of Communication, has received a $2 million research grant in order to help the U.S. Department of Energy improve communication and relations with the public about complex information regarding energy production, according to a press release.

This funding is part of a much larger project between multiple organizations combining scientific concepts and audience accessibility. Weber said that his job is to handle the media communication portion of the project while other contributors at Vanderbilt University deal with the technical aspects of nuclear energy.

According to Weber, this project is a response to the difficulties brought upon by a general lack of knowledge when it comes to nuclear energy and mixed public perception. Weber claimed that people might not want nuclear energy in their proximity despite holding a favorable opinion of its use.

"People look at nuclear energy and say, 'I don't want that in my neighborhood, because I'm concerned about the power of nuclear, like, what happens if something goes wrong?'" Weber said.

When asked about what methods would be used to help gather this data, Weber said that he would be going to different communities and conducting interviews along with a combination of data from surveys and focus groups.

Weber also said that this data is useful for research and that opportunities with projects such as these are very rare.

"We're getting a lot of insight into the ways in which trust and information is driven in these types of contexts that you don't usually get this kind of opportunity to go this deep into community challenges of this nature," he said.

Weber said that he received three grants, all of which were highly sought after, as federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation only reward approximately 10 percent of grant applicants.

"They select the most competitive proposals. We were lucky enough to have our team's work on it," he said.

Regarding collaboration, Weber mentioned the University's membership in the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP). 

According to Weber, CRESP is an advisory group that works with the U.S. Department of Energy. He said CRESP is a key contributor to this project as it helps facilitate communication between researchers, stakeholders and the larger community.

Outside of the project, Weber also dove into his own motivations for the project and what led him to take an interest in this specific area of research in his career. 

Weber stated that he started his academic career with a bachelor's degree in engineering, realized that the field was not a good fit for him and started to gravitate more toward marketing and advertising. He then discovered his passion for complex issues regarding media and communication, completed his Ph.D. in communication and has worked as a faculty member at Rutgers since 2011.

"I'm passionate about understanding complexity. Really, one thing that drives my work is I like taking these complex challenges, especially something like this, where we're talking about critical information so many of us don't understand very well," Weber said.