In the event of a crisis, the Biosciences/ESE Communications team will coordinate its communications with Berkeley Lab Strategic Communications. If an emergency affects Berkeley Lab and/or the surrounding communities, communications from Berkeley Lab are carefully controlled via the Emergency Operations Center. This prevents confusion and misleading information. Refrain from releasing information on emergencies via your social networks.

The Biosciences Communications team is the first point of contact for media relations. Should you be contacted by the media, please consult with the Biosciences Communications team by emailing bioscicomms@lbl.gov before engaging in a conversation with a journalist (Emily will receive this email too).

If, during a conference, you spoke with a journalist who showed interest in your research, please let us know and we will follow up.

If you have been contacted by a reporter inquiring about matters related to public policy, please contact bioscicomms@lbl.gov to go over the proper protocols, covered in the Berkeley Lab Media Interactions policy. 

Briefly, when expressing opinions on policy matters to the public and media, personnel must make it clear that they are expressing personal views, rather than those of the Department, the U.S. Government, or their respective institutions. Anything further must be coordinated between Berkeley Lab Strategic Communications and DOE headquarters prior to the response.

Your help in giving us a heads up will make sure we're meeting our requirements, while also best representing the Lab. We understand that we all have to act fast to respond to urgent inquiries from the media for input from experts like you and we’re dedicated to fast turnaround times on coordination. We appreciate your commitment to excellence as we work together to share our science. 

​If you have an achievement, such as an award or recognition from a professional society, or a paper that is influential in its field, please give the Communications team as much advance notice as possible. If it is a forthcoming paper, ideally, you should contact our team once it has been accepted for publication.

Please fill out this media promotion request form or email emilynelson@lbl.gov and provide the following:

• 1. One paragraph of 3-5 sentences that explains in lay terms why this story deserves attention. Note that providing only a paper’s abstract is not sufficient. An explanatory paragraph is required in order for our team to understand the paper’s themes, significance to a broad audience, and emphasis. Please reflect on:

     • Why is this paper/achievement important?

     • What is the impact?

     • How does it help our mission?

     • Did you find anything surprising or enlightening in the course of this work?

     • What is it that we can do now that we couldn’t do before as a result of this?

  2. The date associated with the achievement or when the paper will be released (if unknown, please provide an estimated time frame).

Making this request does not guarantee that a press release will be written for the reported achievement. After analyzing your response to this form, the communications team will propose a suitable course of action. 

Some possible vehicles for news promotion include:

Should you discover out-of-date information, a broken link, or other problem on the JBEI, ABPDU, or ABF websites that requires attention, please email emilynelson@lbl.gov.