CREST Lab

Communication Research and Engagement for Science and Technology

Our work examines how scientific knowledge and technology can be developed, communicated, and applied in ways that serve people. We combine rigorous social science, user engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration to understand what makes information and innovation trustworthy, useful, and responsive to the contexts in which people make decisions.

Led by
Christopher D. Wirz
Christopher D. Wirz (he/him) Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC)
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Our Research

Our main focus right now is on understanding the societal implications of emerging AI tools and predictions in agriculture, weather, and the environmental sciences. We are studying how communication, engagement, and workforce development can support more human-centered approaches to developing and implementing future tools. Across this work, trust and trustworthiness are major themes in how people make sense of and make decisions about new tools.

What this looks like

People

Lead

Christopher D. Wirz
Christopher D. Wirz (he/him) Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC)
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Christopher Wirz (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Risk and Science Communication and Extension Specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His current research focuses on communication among different decision makers and publics in the face of environmental risks and technologies. His recent work has focused on weather hazards and the development of use-inspired AI for environmental decision making. As he joins the Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication program and Extension at the University of Illinois, he is expanding this work into food and environmental systems.

Graduate Students

Cade McCallen Master's Student, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES)
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Publications

Highlighted

(Re)Conceptualizing trustworthy AI: A foundation for change
Wirz, C.D., Demuth, J.L., Bostrom, A., Cains, M.G., Ebert-Uphoff, I., Gagne II, D.J., Schumacher, A., McGovern, A., & Madlambayan, D. · Artificial Intelligence, 342, 104309 (2025) · DOI
National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters' perceptions of AI/ML and its use in operational forecasting
Wirz, C.D., Demuth, J.L., Cains, M.G., White, M., Radford, J., & Bostrom, A. · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 105(11), E2194–E2215 (2024) · DOI
Increasing the reproducibility and replicability of supervised AI/ML in the Earth systems science by leveraging social science methods
Wirz, C.D., Sutter, C., Demuth, J.L., Mayer, K.J., Chapman, W.E., Cains, M.G., ... & Thorncroft, C. · Earth and Space Science, 11(7), e2023EA003364 (2024) · DOI

Full List

Journal articles

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Research materials and other scholarly outputs

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Source: ORCID 0000-0002-8990-5505

Join the Lab

CREST is a new and growing lab. We're always glad to hear from prospective graduate students and undergraduates interested in user-engaged, interdisciplinary social science research on risk communication, trustworthy AI, or science communication more broadly.

If you're interested in joining, reach out with a short note about your background and interests.