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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC — Brian Southwell, Ph.D., director of the Science in the Public Sphere Program in RTI International's Center for Communication Science, has been appointed to serve on the editorial board of the Energy Research & Social Science journal.
Energy Research & Social Science is a peer-reviewed journal focused on the intersection of energy systems and society. The journal provides an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how social and technical issues related to energy production and consumption interact.
"Energy researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have begun to realize the role that behavioral science can play in understanding energy use," Southwell said. "At RTI, we have seen this connection for a while and so it is a pleasure to serve a journal that also is operating at that intersection."
Southwell has been a contributor to the journal as an author and reviewer previously. For example, in 2014, he published a paper on weatherization behavior in the journal with RTI's Joe Murphy.
In addition, the new editorial board appointment reflects Southwell's faculty appointment at Duke University, where he is an adjunct professor with the Duke University Energy Initiative, a university-wide effort to promote innovation in energy consumption and delivery. In late February, Southwell worked with faculty and students at Duke to host researchers and practitioners from various institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, architecture firms, real-estate agencies, and building contractors for a day-long summit on homeowner energy use.
Work with the new journal also highlights RTI's continued efforts to contribute to public dialog on new social science research. In that vein, Southwell also currently hosts a public radio show, "The Measure of Everyday Life," featuring stories from social science on WNCU-FM (90.7 in the Raleigh-Durham broadcast market and via live streaming at wncu.org). The 30-minute show spotlights the everyday lives of social science researchers every Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. See @MeasureRadio on Twitter for further details.
