NCSWHAT

NCSWA Newsletter, April 2007

Editor: Robin Mejia, mejia@nasw.org
Contributors: Douglas Fox

UPCOMING DEADLINES

Society of Environmental Journalists Award
SEJ’s annual journalism contest honors outstanding environmental coverage in nine categories, each with a $1,000 prize, plus a student category. The winners will be announced at SEJ's 17th Annual Conference, September 5 - 9, 2007, in Stanford, California.
Deadline: April 2
Prizes: $1000
For more info: www.sej.org/contest/index.htm

National Academies Communications Awards This relatively new award has already developed a good bit of cache, a development perhaps not unrelated to its remarkable purse. Three awards will recognize “authors, journalists, and producers who have demonstrated excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and/or medicine to the general public through print, Internet, radio, or television.”
Deadline: April 5
Prizes: $20,000
For more info: www.keckfutures.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Communication_Awards_Overview

Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Awards The Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Awards recognizes outstanding investigative or interpretive reporting about scientific discovery involving animal models. The awards will be presented in Washington, DC in June.
Deadline: April 16, 2007
Prizes: $2000, plus travel to the ceremony
www.fbresearch.org/Journalists/DeBakeyAwards.htm

Knight New Media Center Multimedia Training Seminar
This hands-on multimedia training for mid-career journalists takes place May 20-25 at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Deadline: Friday, April 13, 2007
Cost: Fellowships include lodging, meals, instruction and a travel stipend covering one-half of travel to a maximum of $300.
For more info: multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/training

Sydney 2007: Collaboration with International AIDS Society
This is an all-expenses paid fellowship for international journalists to attend training at the HIV/AIDS Conference in Sydney, Australia
Deadline: April 16
For more info: www.nationalpress.org/info-url4323/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=469457

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Science Journalism Fellowship Program
The program is a one-week residential experience for professional science journalists and editors, with an optional second week of independent study is available for those fellows interested in learning more about specific areas of ocean sciences and engineering research through partnerships with individual scientific or technical staff members.
This year’s one-week program will be September 10-14, 2007. The two-week program will be September 10-21, 2007.
Deadline: June 1
For more info: www.whoi.edu/home/news/media_jfellowship.html

NCSWA ABOUT TOWN

We had a busy winter, throwing the annual science journalist blowout for our national colleagues when AAAS came to town along with our regular dinners…

MEMBER WORK HIGHLIGHTED AT DECEMBER DINNER

On December 13, press attendees from the American Geophysical Union Conference joined NCSWA members for our annual holiday dinner under the hanging trees at Sinbad’s on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The move to a new venue went well, though we promise we’ll arrange for faster service next year.

Rob Irion hosted the ever-popular science trivia quiz, and two NCSWA members captivated the crowd with the stories behind their biggest stories of the previous year. Erika Check, a senior reporter for Nature, recounted her travels through three Indian tiger preserves, as she investigated the challenges of balancing conservation, development, and the rights of indigenous people. In addition to describing the wonder of witnessing a tiger in its natural habitat, she discussed several different projects that attempted to balance the needs of people and the predator in different ways, reminding the assembled journalists that many conservation questions have no easy answer. Ruthann Richter, the director of media relations at Stanford University, traveled the backroads of Kenya with documentary photographer Karen Ande, covering the impact of AIDS in the country, as well as local projects to support orphaned children. The two women told stories from the trip, which led to articles for the SF Chronicle, Mercury News, and the Stanford Medicine and Wesleyan magazines, to a slideshow of Ande’s photography. They’ve also raised $45,000 for grassroots projects in Kenya.

NCSWA HOSTS AAAS BASH AT CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Several hundred press attendees from around the country (and world) descended on the California Academy of Sciences on February 17 for the traditional Saturday night AAAS bash -- hosted this year by NCSWA. Lubricated by a free-flowing bar, attendees talked shop, swapped cards, and caught up with friends.

The penguins may have called it an early night -- but not so the science writers. Nimble-footed nerds danced to the sounds of Motordude Zydeco’s accordion, rubboard, guitar and drums. Chatting crowds gawked at the 18-foot-tall coral reef aquarium, while a solitary few ambled down SSsssnake Alley for bits of quieter conversssssssation. A lucky few caught sight of the rare Gunther’s whipsnake -- which despite living in trees, strangely enough eats only fish.

Many thanks to the party’s sponsors, which included Popular Science, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco, the Knight Journalism Fellowships at MIT, AAAS, Science, AGU, Annual Reviews, Exploratorium, NASW, the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research, and the California Academy of Sciences, which provided the venue for the event.

DARK ENERGY, THE SHAPE OF THE UNIVERSE, AND WHY FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE GREAT FOR TELESCOPES

On Tuesday March 27, about 40 NCSWAns gathered at the Pyramid Ale House in Berkeley for a talk by UC Berkeley cosmologist William Holzapfel, who had just returned from a two-month stint in the Antarctic, where he and his team had installed a 1000-array detector for a brand new 10-meter, $19.2 million telescope. Two years in the making, the scope will help researchers answer tease out details of the history and composition of the Universe. With a hefty slide kit that interspersed political humor with equations and charts, Holzapfel detailed some of the questions they hope to answer, such as is Dark Energy Einstein’s cosmological constant – or not? Attendees also got a peek at construction project, and learned why sub-freezing temperatures make for great telescopic images – the lack of water in the air makes for clearer viewing.

MEMBER NEWS

After a 17-year stint that included titles such as medical writer, assistant city editor and assistant business editor (for technology news), Donna Alvarado has left the San Jose Mercury News Now to serve as the managing editor of Stanford University’s weekly publication, Medical Center Report. Alvarado writes “Now that I don’t have late daily deadlines, I might be able to actually attend some NCSWA events. Looking forward to it.”

Stephanie Chasteen and Karen Schmidt are producing podcasts on nanotechnology called, appropriately enough, SmallTalk. You can listen in -- and test your smarts against their Nano Nonsense quiz -- at http://www.nisenet.org/podcasts. Chasteen, a post doc at the Exploratorium, tell us that she’d love to talk with other science writers about podcasting.

A veteran of a variety of research positions and a former tech writer, Kim Fulton-Bennett is enjoying his current gig as a communications associate at MBARI, a job that involves working with reporters and writing for the MBARI web site. He’s also at work on a book about seasonal change in the oceans.

Thomas Hayden’s book, On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story, co-authored with Navy doctor Richard Jadick, was published in March (NAL/Penguin). It deals with battlefield medicine in the Iraq war, and recounts the work of Navy doctors and hospital corpsmen during the battle of Fallujah in November, 2004.

Sybil Lockhart recently signed with Touchstone/Simon Schuster to write Early Stages, a biologist’s memoir of child rearing and caregiving.

Betsy Mason won the AGU’s David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism News for her series in the Contra Costa Times on the centennial of the San Francisco earthquake, based on a conference commemorating the event.

Mary Maxon served as a deputy vice chair for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where she researched and drafted intellectual property policies for stem cell grantees. Recently, Maxon left the Institute for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where she is the marine microbiology initiative lead.

On March 31, Michael Ross retired from IBM. He expects to continue writing about high tech and science as a freelance or consultant, but details are still being determined.

In June, Wiley will release Gordy Slack’s new book, The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA. Gordy tells us, “The book stems from my coverage of the trial for Salon.com, but it’s also about my own effort, as an evolutionist, to understand my father (a scientist) and his advocacy of intelligent design theory.” Evolutionary biologist Niles Eldredge has called the book “magnificent—by far the best depiction I have seen of America's culture war that pits religious concepts of the supernatural against the materialism of science.”

Marilyn Hope Smulyan, one of the founders of Bay Nature Magazine, is working as a public affairs consultant and writer.

Matt Wilson is writing on ecology for Save the Redwoods, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that funds science research in redwood forests.

NEW MEMBERS

Laurence Clement is a freelancer with a PhD in epidemiology.

Rachel Kleinman, a program coordinator and producer with the Teen Environmental Media Network, has guided Bay Area teens in the production of more than 180 audio reports and 30 print columns. She looks forward to connecting with other science writing educators and bringing the wisdom of the greater science writing community to her young reporters.

Katherine Neilan is an internal medicine hospitalist at California Pacific Medical Center. She’s at work on a memoir.

PhD Helen Nicely is a senior medical writer with Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc.

Kelly Reeves just arrived in California. After finishing an MS in Botany at the University of Wyoming, she spent last summer interning at NPR as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow. She joined us on this coast for science communication internship at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Rachel Tompa is finishing a PhD at UCSF while launching a writing career.

Valerie Tucker is a communications officer with the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF.

Keith Eric Grant didn’t tell us all that much about himself. Neither did Neelang Parghi. Hopefully we’ll meet them at an upcoming dinner.