Practical Geocommunication and Hydrocarbons
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About the Course
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It goes without saying that industries involved in the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons face a monumental image problem. But what can they do about it? Outreach initiatives have consistently failed to connect with public sentiment and have made falling university enrolment in the geosciences even worse. With such a record, I advocate a radical rethink to public outreach in the energy sector. I take a look at past communication strategies, what’s gone wrong and what needs to improve.
Your Instructor
Dr Haydon Mort is a geologist and the CEO of Geologize Ltd and instructor of the critically acclaimed course, Practical Geocommuniation. After obtaining his Masters in Plymouth (UK), he did his PhD in Switzerland, before moving to The Netherlands to do a post-doc and then Brazil, where he was a visiting associate professor for 9 years. In Brazil he worked on regional projects with Petrobras and BP. In 2015 he collaborated with Prof Iain Stewart to launch the first Geocommunications course in Latin America as well as a successful social media platform. After seeing a worrying decline in university geoscience enrolment, he returned to England in 2018 to inspire secondary school children to take up the geosciences as a career – a job market he sees as essential for the future sustainability of society. His company, Geologize, undertakes direct public outreach and offers critical outreach skills for university staff and students as well as industry leaders. He is married to his Brazilian wife, Carla, and has three children, Ethan, Raphael and Levi.