investigator
morgridge institute for research

taylor-bascom chair &
vilas distinguished
achievement professor
university of wisconsin-madison, life sciences communication

affiliate appointments
center for european studies; nelson institute for environmental studies; neuroscience & public policy program; robert f. and jean e. holtz center for science and technology studies


education
b.a. equiv., johannes gutenberg-
universität mainz
publizistik (nebenfächer:
politikwissenschaft, betriebswirtschaftslehre)

m.a., university of
wisconsin-madison
journalism & mass communication

ph.d., university of
wisconsin-madison
mass communications
(ph.d. minor in political science)
 

select monographs
dietram a. scheufele
[DEE-trum SHOY-full-uh]


short bio

Dietram A. Scheufele is a Principal Investigator in the Morgridge Institute for Research and the Taylor-Bascom Chair and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Scheufele's current research examines how algorithmically-curated information environments fundamentally reshape how we all make sense of the world around us. His most recent publications have included work on mis- and disinformation, open science, and the societal impacts of emerging technologies like AI and human brain organoids.

He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. Scheufele is also an elected fellow of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Communication Association, and a lifetime associate of the U.S. National Research Council.

Scheufele's teaching has been recognized with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award at UW, the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Young Faculty Teaching Award, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Spitzer Excellence in Teaching Award.

Over the course of his career, he has held professorships, fellowships, or visiting appointments at a number of other universities, including Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Technische Universität Dresden, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, and - most recently - the Universität Wien.

His consulting portfolio includes work for DeepMind, Porter Novelli, PBS, WHO, the World Bank, and various private philanthropies.

research

Scheufele is author or co-author of over 300 articles and monographs, and one of the most widely-recognized experts globally across a variety of research areas, including misinformation, science communication, health communication, and science & technology policy. 

Extramural support for Scheufele's research program comes from a wide variety of public and private funders, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the John Templeton Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Hopewell Fund, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

public scholarship and service

Scheufele currently chairs the Practice and Science of Civic Science Advisory Committee of the Rita Allen Foundation in Princeton, NJ. He also serves on the Kuratorium (Board of Trustees) for the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (Heidelberg, Germany). Most recently, he has served as inaugural co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication, and as a member of the Academies' Board on Health Sciences Policy, Division of Earth and Life Studies (DELS) Advisory Committee, and Divison of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) Advisory Committee.

At UW, Scheufele has served on most of the UW's main governance bodies, including the University Committee (Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate), the Social Sciences Divisional Committee, the University Committee for Honorary Degrees (as chair), the Provost Search & Screen Committee (twice), the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee, and the UW-Madison Athletic Board.

 

 

  

contact information

University of Wisconsin–Madison
310 Hiram Smith Hall (map)
1545 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1215

(v) +1.608.262.1614
(f) +1.608.265.3042
scheufele at wisc.edu
dscheufele at morgridge.org

social media:
LinkedIn
 BlueSky
X (Twitter)

 

curriculum vitae

Complete CV in portable document format

For more information, see Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, or ORCID.

 

some of our lab's ongoing work on ai and its impacts on society ...

Eom, D., Newman, T., Brossard, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (2024). Societal guardrails for AI? Perspectives on what we know about public opinion on artificial intelligence. Science and Public Policy. doi:10.1093/scipol/scae041

Yang, S., Krause, N. M., Bao, L., Calice, M. N., Newman, T. P., Scheufele, D. A., Xenos, M. A., & Brossard, D. (forthcoming). In AI we trust: The interplay of media use, political ideology, and trust in shaping emerging AI attitudes. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. doi:10.1177/10776990231190868

Calice, M. N., Bao, L., Freiling, I., Howell, E., Xenos, M. A., Yang, S., Brossard, D., Newman, T. P., & Scheufele, D. A. (2023). Polarized platforms? How partisanship shapes perceptions of “algorithmic news bias.” New Media & Society, 25I(11), 2833-2854. doi:10.1177/14614448211034159

Bao, L., Krause, N. M., Calice, M. N., Scheufele, D. A., Wirz, C. D., Brossard, D., Newman, T. P., & Xenos, M. A. (2022). Whose AI? How different publics think about AI and its social impact. Computers in Human Behavior, 130, 107182. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107182

 

... on building infrastructures for equitable science communication and engagement ...

Good Christopherson, E., Nelson, A., & Scheufele, D. A. (under contract). The future of science is civic. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Eom, D., Molder, A., Tosteson, H. A., Howell, E. L., DeSalazar, M., Kirschner, E., Goodwin, S. S., & Scheufele, D. A. (forthcoming) Race and gender biases persist in public perceptions of scientists' credibility. Scientific Reports.

Scheufele, D. A. (2022). Thirty years of science–society interfaces: What’s next? Public Understanding of Science, 31(3), 297-304.

Scheufele, D. A., Krause, N. M., Freiling, I., & Brossard, D. (2021). What we know about effective public engagement on CRISPR and beyond. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(22), e2004835117.

Good Christopherson, E., Howell, E. L., Scheufele, D. A., Viswanath, K., & West, N. P. (2021). How science philanthropy can build equity. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall, 48-55.

Scheufele, D. A. (2018). Beyond the choir? The need to understand multiple publics for science. Environmental Communication, 12(8), 1123-1126.

Good Christopherson, E., Scheufele, D. A, & Smith, B. (2018). The civic science imperative. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 16(2), 46-52.

 

... and on misinformation, polarization (some, during the COVID-19 pandemic)

Freiling, I., Krause, N. M., & Scheufele, D. A. (2023). The science and ethics of “curing” misinformation. AMA Journal of Ethics, 25(3), E228-237. doi:10.1001/amajethics.2023.228

Krause, N. M., Beets, B., Howell, E. L., Tosteson, H., & Scheufele, D. A. (2023). Collateral damage from debunking mRNA vaccine misinformation. Vaccine, 41(4), 922-929.

Krause, N. M., Freiling, I., & Scheufele, D. A. (2022). The “infodemic” infodemic: Toward a more nuanced understanding of truth-claims and the need for (not) combatting misinformation. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 700(1), 112-123.

Freiling, I., Krause, N. M., Scheufele, D. A., & Brossard, D. (2021). Believing and sharing misinformation, fact-checks, and accurate information on social media: The role of anxiety during COVID-19. New Media & Society, 14614448211011451.

Scheufele, D. A., Krause, N. M., & Freiling, I. (2021). Misinformed about the “infodemic?” Science’s ongoing struggle with misinformation. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 10(4), 522-526.

Scheufele, D. A., Krause, N. M., Freiling, I., & Brossard, D. (2020). How not to lose the COVID-19 communication war. Issues in Science and Technology, April 17.

Scheufele, D. A., & Krause, N. M. (2019). Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(16), 7662-7669.