By Hans Peter Peters, Editor of Public Understanding of Science
With the beginning of November, Dr. Elena Milani, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), UK, is the new social media editor of Public Understanding of Science. She follows Cristina Rigutto from the University of Trento, Italy, who held that position since 2016.
Elena is a research fellow at the Science Communication Unit at UWE Bristol, and a social media expert with not only a theoretical understanding of social media but also a lot of professional experience. She completed her PhD at UWE with a study on vaccine movements on social media, and has worked as social media editor for university departments, campaigns and scientific conferences. As social media editor of PUS she will be responsible for our blog and Twitter account @SciPublic.
Cristina Rigutto who teaches on social media at the University of Trento has broadened our social media activities since 2016, giving our journal some visibility in the social media. We regret that she has to leave the editorial team on short notice due to a pressing family issue. We owe her for her contributions to the success of our journal. Whenever we talked, and she explained to me what she does and why she does it that way, I noticed her profound expertise in the management of social media and the deliberate use of our limited resources for social media activities. She regularly tweeted about our articles as they are published, and I was often impressed by her ability to capture the core message of a complicated article in a short tweet.
Although Cristina is stepping down for the time being we hope to welcome her back; in appointing Elena, Cristina’s daughter, we expect a smooth transition from Cristina to Elena and hopefully from Elena to Cristina when she is ready to return.