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Payson R. Stevens

Payson R. Stevens is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Payson R. Stevens rather than just read about it. In short: Payson R. Stevens (born March 29, 1945) is an artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, and science communicator from the United States.

Payson R. Stevens — main illustration
Payson R. Stevens — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Payson R. Stevens belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Payson R. Stevens to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Payson R. Stevens from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Payson R. Stevens (born March 29, 1945) is an artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, and science communicator from the United States. Stevens is regarded as a pioneer of science communication in the fields of earth systems science (ESS) and climate change in the U.S. He is also noted as an early digital and electronic visual artist, a painter, and a poet. In addition, he is known for his environmental and humanitarian work in California, US, and Himachal Pradesh, India.

Personal life and education Payson R. Stevens was born to Dr. Naomi Miller Coval-Apel, a noted New York dentist, and Eric Stevens. Stevens has a background in the arts, molecular biology, biological oceanography, and graphic design. He has a BA from New York University. He studied molecular biology for his masters at the City University of New York from 1965 to 1968. He also studied at the Arts Students League and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Later, Stevens completed some graduate work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under the guidance of Roger Revelle. Stevens is married to the Indian writer Kamla K. Kapur. They live in Del Mar, San Diego County, California.

Science communication Stevens was a contributing consultant to the college textbooks Biology Today and Geology Today, published by CRM in 1972 and 1973 respectively. Stevens was the writer for the documentary 'Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Life', which was broadcast by KPBS on November 19, 1979. This documentary won the CINE Golden Eagle Award and the 1980 Silver Award at the U.S. Industrial Film Festival. In 1979, Stevens founded the company InterNetwork Inc. (INI) 'to provide to provide communication services to organizations wanting to convey scientific information to broader, lay audiences using a variety of media'. In 1985, the Earth Science Systems Committee of NASA reached out to Stevens for help in engaging non-technical audiences, such as bureaucrats, politicians, and the general public, with the then nascent discipline of ESS. Stevens and his company INI prepared ESS material and a strategy to promote them. Some of the ESS topics Stevens/INI helped design and illustrate materials for included an introduction to ESS, climate change, space missions for oceanographic data, El Nino, and the ozone layer. The techniques used in these materials and promotional strategy were more often associated with corporate marketing. Later in the 1990s, InterNetwork Inc. evolved into a new company, called InterNetwork Media Inc.

Reception According to the historian of science Jenifer Barton, 'Payson Stevens's work helped transform ESS's products and various communication strategies into a science brand'. Similar arguments about the significance of Stevens's work for ESS also appear in an interview of the earth scientist Berrien Moore III (2011), and in the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2008). In 1989, Stevens presented the work of INI at Robert Redford's 'Sundance Symposium on Global Climate Change'. In 1990, Stevens delivered a TED talk on global warming. In 1993, Stevens's company INI received the John Wesley Powell Award from the United States Geological Survey. In 1994, INI went on to receive the Presidential Award for Design Excellence from President Bill Clinton.

Nature conservation In the late 1970s, Stevens was involved in the public efforts to get certain tracts, marked for offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf near San Diego, California, deleted on environmental grounds. In 2000, the volunteer group 'Friends of GHNP' was founded by Stevens and Sanjeeva Pandey, an Indian Forest Service officer who was then the director of the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), located in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Stevens was a key player in Friends of GHNP, which put together the nomination dossier and spearheaded the application for a UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh, India. In June 2014, GHNP became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 2021, Stevens has been involved in the public efforts to protect the bluffs and beach in Del Mar, California, along the Pacific Ocean.

Humanitarian work Stevens was a founding member and board advisor of the non-governmental organization (NGO) 'My Himachal', formed in 2006. This NGO trained rural women as healthcare workers, organized traveling health fairs, and instituted a small education fund, all in a remote part of Himachal Pradesh, India. For this work, Stevens was honored in 2008 by Project Concern International.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Payson R. Stevens illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Payson R. Stevens

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Payson R. Stevens claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Payson R. Stevens before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Payson R. Stevens ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Payson R. Stevens

In research
Payson R. Stevens appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Payson R. Stevens in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Payson R. Stevens is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century American earth scientists, 20th-century American illustrators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Payson R. Stevens outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Payson R. Stevens in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Payson R. Stevens means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Payson R. Stevens out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Payson R. Stevens in simple terms?

Payson R. Stevens (born March 29, 1945) is an artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, and science communicator from the United States.

Why does Payson R. Stevens matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Payson R. Stevens?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Payson R. Stevens.

Tags

  • 1945 births
  • 20th-century American earth scientists
  • 20th-century American illustrators
  • 20th-century American male painters
  • 20th-century American non-fiction writers
  • 20th-century American painters
  • 21st-century American earth scientists
  • 21st-century American illustrators
  • 21st-century American male painters
  • 21st-century American male poets
  • 21st-century American non-fiction writers
  • 21st-century American painters

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