pechan@ifkw.lmu.dePaul Pechan, received his PhD in Plant Physiology at Cambridge University, England in 1983. As a postdoc, he worked at UC Davis and Agriculture Canada. In 1988 he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to work in Germany: from 1988-1995 as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute (MPI für Biochemie in Munich). From 1995 to 2004 he worked as a scientist at the Technical University Munich and concurrently as the head of a plant molecular laboratory at Charles University in Prague (1995-2000). During this time he coordinated 5 EU-wide research projects, primarily in the area of plant molecular biology. Due to increasing interest in science communication, he changed to the Institute of Communication and Media Research at the Ludwig Maximilians University in the fall of 2004. Paul Pechan is Listed in Who-is-Who in the World and Who-is Who-in Science.
Although still active in health related research projects, his main interest revolves around communicating health, environmental and risk issues with the general public and youth, both in formal and informal educational settings and in different regions of Europe. The activities are also directed to encourage dialogue on key current and emerging scientific issues. For example, specific stakeholder discourses are used to identify and prioritize environmental/ health challenges and solutions. Among the youth, the work is primarily aimed to improve scientific literacy: to stimulate information recall and motivation to learn more about the presented topics. Among the general public, the work aims to empower the citizens to make knowledge based decisions. Internet, multimedia, broadcasting, printed media as well as specialized events are used as platforms to reach the targeted audiences.
Research is aimed at evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the generated and communicated content to reach set objectives - for example improved learning in classrooms or fostering public engagement. The analysis includes evaluation of questionnaires and focus group discussions. In addition, experiments are being designed to answer specific questions arising from the above investigations. The research results are intended to improve communication activities. The outcomes are also directed to decision makers for their policy formulations. Finally, Pechan had developed YouProduce!, an educational e-learning platform for teachers and students. The platform enables students to create films in classroom or home settings.
Pechan published 32 papers in refereed journals (4 in the past 2 years). He co-authored three books (2 with Springer publishers-"Genes on the menu" and "Safe or nor safe", and one with UNESCO-"Learning to deal with new technologies"). Fourth book is in preparation (also with Springer publishers- "Living with water"). Pechan has authored or co-author 10 films for public and educational audiences on health, food and environmental issues. As project coordinator, Pechan was involved in numerous presentations, invited lectures and organization of workshops and meetings.
