During the summer of 2022, Shahir Rizk was hosted by the Boroughs-Wellcome Fund (BWF) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina as part of his sabbatical. The project, funded in part by the BWF, centers on enhancing science communication skills in young scientists and reaching the general public with sound scientific information through art and storytelling. Rizk's project is a collaboration with Maggie Fink, 2019 IUSB alumna and NSF GRFP PhD candidate at the University of Notre Dame. Together, Rizk and Fink conducted workshops for graduate students and post-docs on how to communicate science to the public in a world of misinformation. In addition, they worked on illustrating protein structures and some sculpture pieces currently displayed at the BWF headquarters. The artwork is part of a popular science book that both Rizk and Fink are co-writing and co-illustrating. The book, which is scheduled for release in early 2024 (Harvard University Press) introduces a general audience to concepts of protein science using art and personal narrative.
