When the topic turned to the increasing doubt and distortion of science that undermines public health efforts, Leshin suggested that it is part of a broader trend. “When we have spent so much time as a society undermining [authority in general]—government, probably most spectacularly—it’s actually not that surprising that we end up with a mistrust of science, because it feels institutional,” she said. “There’s something about those things being linked, and do I know the answer to it? I do not. … It’s a huge challenge to overcome.”

The panelists were also unanimous that scientists and engineers should redouble efforts to communicate with the public about their work. “It’s a wonderful thing to go off and discover something, and we should honor people who do that,” said Behnken, who had delivered Caltech’s commencement speech at an in-person ceremony earlier that day. “But if they don’t share it with somebody else, then, in some sense, the discovery is lost.”

All of the panelists called upon their fellow alumni to take part in such outreach any way they can. After all, what they learned at the Institute puts them in a special position to contribute. “This place, to me, was all about building an incredibly strong foundation in critical thinking, problem-solving, questioning, and appropriate levels of skepticism ... and [bringing] that to the world,” Leshin said.