Ben Wiehe is manager of the Science Festival Alliance. He grew up going to smallest public school system in Connecticut. He went to a liberal arts college in Maine: physics and philosophy major with time abroad for Tibetan studies. He then worked his way around North America (Chiapas to Aleutians) for a long while. (After grad school in Chicago for social science, he worked for natural parks, science centers, and public television). Three years of getting science cafes started around the US led into his current position at MIT managing the Science Festival Alliance. Ben has been a part of COPUS since the beginning!

Here’s Ben’s take on COPUS:
“COPUS has been important for me for a long time. I’ve always felt that I get more out of my involvement with it than I give. Of course over the years my needs have shifted. And this is the thing that is most important about COPUS to me — I’ll sum it up to folks that don’t know much about the group:

COPUS identifies emerging leaders with little institutional backing for their passion and provides them with a supportive network.

I’ve gone through that change to an extent, and so have many of the original members. Natalie has now launched a new nonprofit. Danielle is making waves in all kinds of directions. Darlene has sorted through several of her passions and figured out how to make them reality via I-­can’t-­count-how-many business models. etc…

So welcome! Stay involved, give back — one of the things an emerging leader needs to thrive is the opportunity to lead.”

Three words that describe Ben:
He is a a social creature, hack of all trades, scavenger.

The dots Ben connects:
He connects science festival organizers to each other, and to regional/national collaborators.