Dena Seidel
Director, Editor, Second Camera, Science Storytelling Mentor
Dena Seidel is an Emmy award-winning science filmmaker and science communication researcher. Over the past 17 years, Seidel has developed an original and innovative science-in-action storytelling™ model that begins by developing trusting partnerships between scientists and video storytellers with the shared goal of translating science for public audiences and training the next generation of science communicators. Seidel has directed and produced several films featuring Rutgers scientists for national and international distribution all while including undergraduates in the creative process including “Fields of Devotion“, “Antarctic Edge: 70° South” “Atlantic Crossing: A Robot’s Daring Mission” and “Generation at Risk” and “The War After” and now “Mysteries of 9° North”. Her students have directed several successful research-based films on their own including “The Women of Nsongwe”, “Skycatcher”, “The Princess of Piombino” “Life on the Edge: “Exploring New Jersey’s Ecosystems” “Biting Back: The Lifesaving Potential of Catnip” “Where the Waters Meet on the Breathing Shore” and “Growing a Caribbean Glider Fleet”.
Seidel is a co-founder of Rutgers Immersive Learning through Science Storytelling Lab. There, she mentors and supervises undergraduate and graduate students who shape science video data into compelling science-in-action film stories as part of their own science learning through storytelling research.