GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Besides keeping tabs on how global warming is changing the world's oceans, Jane Lubchenco - one of the world's leading marine biologists - is teaching her fellow scientists to drop the academic-ese they use among themselves and speak so regular folks can understand them.

Lubchenco is a member of the Pew Oceans Commission that recommended steps to overcome crippling damage to the world's oceans from overfishing, pollution, coastal development and climate change.

She is also founder of the Leopold Leadership Program, named for conservationist and author Aldo Leopold. It puts 20 scientists from colleges and universities through a communications boot camp.

"The philosophy behind it is that a key role of science is to inform people's understanding and decisions. Not to dictate those decisions, but to inform them," Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology and zoology at Oregon State University in Corvallis, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The first week of the boot camp is low-key in a retreat setting. The second is in Washington, D.C., where the scientists go through simulated press interviews and congressional hearings.

"Most of them won't even return journalists' phone calls because they're afraid of them," Lubchenco said of scientists. "They don't want journalists misquoting them."

She said that when scientists talk about their research, they "typically start with history, methods, materials, who did what in the field." Then they describe their experiments, "and only at the end get to their conclusion."

But scientists are beginning to see "that's not a very useful way of communicating with people who want to know first and foremost what is the bottom line, why should I care, and is this relevant," she said.

Oregon State zoology Professor Andy Blaustein attended the boot camp, and has started passing on what he learned to his graduate students.

"I don't think scientists resist talking in plain English to lawmakers, the press and the public - I don't think most of them know how," he said.

Lubchenco is recognized around the globe as an expert on issues of marine policy.

She has received numerous awards, authored key scientific papers and has sat on many national and international advisory panels.

Lubchenco is also a co-founder of Climate Central, a Web site devoted to providing timely information and analysis on global warming to the press and business, government and religious leaders.

Lubchenco has a B.A. in biology from Colorado College, a master's in zoology from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in marine ecology from Harvard University. She has taught at OSU since 1978.

As she does her part to improve scientists' communication with the public, Lubchenco is looking forward to a change in the White House, whether it is Democrat Sen. Barack Obama or Republican Sen. John McCain.

"The Bush administration has not been respectful of the science," she said. "But I think that's not true of Republicans in general. I know it's not. I am very much looking forward to a new administration that does respect scientific information and that considers it very seriously in making environmental policies."

Last July she served as a staff scientist on an Arctic cruise co-sponsored by the Aspen Institute, National Geographic and Linblad Expeditions that was designed to bring together leaders of business, government, and environmental groups to see firsthand the effects of global warming.

The cruise left her hopeful that leaders of government and business are supporting the difficult steps to counter the bad effects of greenhouse gas emissions on marine life, which include warming ocean temperatures, changing currents, increasing numbers of low-oxygen dead zones and increasing acidity.

"I know there have been many times in the past where public opinion can shift very very rapidly on an issue," ranging from cigarette smoking to slavery, she said. "I think we are getting closer and closer to a tipping point on climate change and other issues that affect our health, prosperity and well-being globally. And I am hopeful we will get there in time."