NOVEMBER 3: CAREERS IN SCIENCE JOURNALISM WORKSHOP

On Saturday, November 3, NCSWA will convene a special workshop at San Francisco State University on "Careers in Science Journalism." NCSWA board members are assembling panels of veteran Bay Area science journalists to discuss several types of career paths, including freelancing, print journalism, Internet and "new media," public information, broadcast, and book writing. Distinguished guests will offer overviews of the field at the beginning and the end of the event. The workshop will be geared toward undergraduate and graduate students in both science and journalism. However, we also encourage NCSWA members to attend. New members will find the workshop a great opportunity to network among colleagues in the Bay Area, and experienced members will have much to offer during the discussions by each panel.

The workshop will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Seven Hills Conference Center on the SFSU campus. Advance registration will be required, and there will be a modest fee to cover the cost of lunch. Watch for more details in September. If you have questions, contact organizer Rob Irion at irion@nasw.org.

MEET YOUR FELLOW WRITERS

From new NCSWA member, Bob McNally, president of the Northern California Chapter of the American Society of Journalists and Authors:  The Northern California chapter of the the American Society of Authors and Journalists invites all NCSWA'ers, spouses, and companions to a backyard barbecue, gathering, and meet-your-fellow writers opportunity on Saturday, August 25, at the home of Donna Albrecht, 4603 Lincoln Ave., in Concord.

The gathering starts at 4 p.m., and the barbecue will be fired up at 5. Please bring a dish to share, something to grill, and your own beverages. Dress is casual, and warm weather for this meeting is a long-standing ASJA tradition unlikely to be broken this year.

Please RSVP to Donna at (925) 825-6861, donna@albrechts.com, or to chapter president Bob McNally at (925) 674-1520, r.a.mcnally@home.com. If you'd like to know more about who and what ASJA is, call or e-mail Bob.

Directions to Donna’s from 680/24 -- Take the Treat Blvd. offramp from 680 northbound and bear right onto Treat. Keep going, and going, and going, for roughly six miles. After you cross Clayton Road, the name of Treat becomes Denkinger. Keep going until you reach the light at Concord Blvd; turn right.

About two-thirds of mile ahead on the left is a boulevard entrance to Bishop Estates; the name of the street is Jefferson. Drive in past the lion that is spitting into a gold bowl (yes, we have at least one dentist in the neighborhood).

Jefferson dead-ends on Lincoln. Please turn right; the last time someone turned left the whole front of that house had to be rebuilt. Donna’s house is about two-thirds of the way down Lincoln on the left.

If you're coming from across the Benicia Bridge, call Donna Albrecht at (925) 825-6861 for directions.

LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT NOMINATIONS FOR DAVID PERLMAN AWARD

The San Francisco Medical Society (SFMS) announces the last opportunity for reporters and writers to submit nominations for the "David Perlman Award for Excellence in Medical/Health Reporting." This $1,000 award is presented each January at the SFMS Annual Dinner. The deadline for nominations is September 30, 2001 for the 2002 award.

David Perlman is the veteran Science Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle  who has won numerous awards for his reporting of science, technology and medicine for more than 35 years. In January of 2000, the SFMS honored Dave by naming this award after him and presenting him with the inaugural award for his series in the San Francisco Chronicle  that helped save the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in its early days.

On January 25, 2001 at the SFMS Annual Dinner, Dwana Bain of the Independent Newspaper group in Burlingame and Pam Rorke Levy and Suzanne Guyette of KQED radio/TV were honored as the year's recipients for their work. Ms. Bain received the award for best print news story for her series on the Sunbridge Nursing Home residents alleged neglect and deaths during the heat wave in June 2000. Film producers Levy and Guyette received the award for best television report for their production "Final Choice: America Struggles With the Right to Die," a 60-minute documentary probing the sensitive issues surrounding the subject of assisted suicide.

A prestigious panel of SFMS journalists, physicians and community leaders will judge the selections received. San Francisco Medical Society will announce the award recipient in December 2001. The award will be formally presented at the SFMS Annual Dinner on January 25, 2002.

Please refer to the award criteria attached for specifics. For further information, please contact Edare Carroll, SFMS Communications Director, at 415/561-0861 or ecarroll@sfms.org

Award Criteria:

1. The report or series, or body of work must be on a relevant health or medical issue.
2. The report must be well-researched, written and produced between October 1, 2000 and September 1, 2001.
3. The report may be either a single newspaper article or series, single radio report or series, or a single television report or series.
4. A maximum of three entries, each to be a single report or a continued series, may be submitted by one newspaper, radio or television station.
5. Newspaper entries should be one original and five copies, either photocopies or printouts from electronic files.
6. Radio entries should be submitted by audiotape with a total of six copies.
7. Television entries should be submitted by videotape with a total of six copies.
8. The entry must have been designed to improve the public understanding of health, health care and/or medicine and/or contributed to significant improvement in the quality of care.
9. Entries must come from print or broadcast media headquartered in the following counties: San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Sonoma.

NEW MEMBERS

NCSWA membership chief Jeffery Kahn reports that we have an influx of new members. We hope to see you all at our dinners, special events, or workshops. New members (those who provided shorts bios when they joined) include:

Larry Schuster, freelancing in Oakland, who is the former science and technology editor for UPI in Washington D.C. and the former president of the DC Science Writers Association

Jennifer Couzin of San Francisco, staff writer who covers biotechnology for the Industry Standard, and former reporter for Science and US News & World Report.

Natalie DeWitt, who has just moved here to open up a new editorial office for Nature. She is a senior editor in the new San Francisco office.

Robert Aquinas McNally, a freelance writer and editor in Concord who is the current president of the Northern California chapter of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. McNally is the author, coauthor, or ghostwriter of six books with two more in press.

Tim DeRoche, a tv producer and writer who served as executive producer and writer for "Grandpa's Garage," a children's science show produced by Turner. DeRoche has written print articles for the Washington Post and Education Week, among others.

Charles Versaggi, president of Versaggi Biocommunications in San Francisco which does corporate communications, former was a science reporter for the Milwaukee Journal and a AAAS Mass Media Science Fellow.

Katharine Miller of Mill Valley, who finished the UCSC science writing program in May and will begin a freelance career after a summer maternity leave.

Gil Davis of Atherton, an associate with the Center for Investigative Reporting who specializes in writing about how various types of buildings will withstand future earthquakes.

Sherry Boschert of San Francisco, who reports for the International Medical News Group, and who is on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Camille Deering, a senior research associate at UCSF, who works in prion research there.

Irvin Pan, a research technician with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, who graduated from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars program in 2000 with a masters in science writing.

Edward Simon Hanson of San Francisco, a neuroendocrinologist turned educator who is working with the Lawrence Hall of Science on a tobacco education grant.

Carl Hall, a science writer with the San Francisco Chronicle, who says he "labors in the titanic shadow of Dave Perlman."

Pam Hanson a Hollister freelance medical and biotech writer who works for biotech companies, and writes book reviews and feature articles for nonprofit organizations

Lily Lew, a San Francisco student who describes herself with this verse:
"Amidst the glassware forest is this young sage
Earning scarcely more than minimum wage
Dancing among the notebook page are stories told
No wonder alchemist look to fashioning lead into gold."

JOB CHANGES

Bob Finn sends the following message: After almost nine years freelancing full time, but with a mortgage looming in my near future, I've taken a full-time job as San Francisco Bureau Chief for the International Medical News Group, which publishes six trade papers for physicians. It's truly "the best of both worlds" (in the words of the ad I saw in the Chronicle) since I get to continue working at home with the entire width of the continent separating me from my editors. IMNG has other "San Francisco Bureau Chiefs," several of whom are, I believe, also NCSWA members. Bob can still be reached at finn@nasw.org

Karen Watson has left Discovery.com. and on May 21, started at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in downtown Washington, DC as a new media project development officer. "In a nutshell," writes Karen, "I'll help set strategy, figure out how money should be spent for creating cross-platform content and work nationally with public broadcasting teams that are making the 'paradigm shift to convergent, multimedia thinking. Here's how to find me: KWatson@cpb.org or 202-879-9829.” The current board likes to refer to Karen, a longtime board member, as NCSWA’s East Coast Bureau Chief.

John Watson, formerly Public Affairs Manager for the SOFIA telescope at the NASA Ames Research Center, began a new post in March as Public Relations Programs Manager for SGI (formerly Silicon Graphics, Inc.), handling science, energy and manufacturing applications of SGI technologies. John has recently free-lanced for the Space.com web site and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Geoff Koch sends word from the great state of Oregon: "Corporate life is as busy here as in the Bay Area. And it rains more. Still, the decision to relocate to take a new assignment with Intel has been a good one. While writing sales collateral is not exactly the same thing as contributing to the Science section of the New YorkTimes, it does involve putting pen to paper. I've had my first appearance in "The Oregonian," as well. A kick to see my byline in the Sunday paper, but at $100 a pop, I won't be leaving the semiconductor industry anytime soon."

MORE

Lynda Williams, NCSWA member also known as the Physics Chanteuse who entertained at last December’s dinner, sends word that: “I've moved to NYC and am going to CUNY Graduate Center for my PhD in Sci Ed. I am working in the New Media Lab on science communication using new media with Dr. Brian Schwartz. I was on the tv game show “To Tell The Truth,” which will be broadcast in the fall. Will the real science singer please stand up? Remember the show? Pretty hilarious!

John Wilkes, big cheese at UCSC’s Science Communications Program, says the program’s Class of 2001 has taken the following internships:

• Solana Pyne: science reporter, Newsday (Long Island, NY)
• Ben Shouse: reporter, European news bureau, Science magazine (Cambridge, England)
• Erica Klarreich: reporter, Nature (London)
• Greg Miller: reporter, New Scientist (London)
• Betsy Mason: science reporter, The Dallas Morning News
• Katie Greene: researcher, reporter, writer, Popular Science magazine (New York City)
• Louisa Dalton: reporter, writer, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (Idaho Falls)
• Kathy Miller: (time out for new baby)
• Holly Davis: webmaster for research vessel in the Galapagos
• Aparna Sreenivasan: molecular bio postdoc at UC San Francisco

MEMBER BOOKS

Anyone with an interest in soccer at any level, from kids games to professional and international matches, may want to take a look at "For the Good of the Game" by NCSWA member Robert Evans (and his co-author Edward Bellion). This 100,000-word book on techniques of refereeing the game is filled with stories and examples from their international refereeing experience, and tales of their encounters with some of the great players in the game. It is available from Amazon.

From Dianne Lange: “The second edition of the American Cancer Society’s award-winning book 'Informed Decisions,' by Dr. Harmone Eyre, Dianne Partie Lange, and Lois B. Morris, the essential reference for anyone confronting cancer, will be in bookstores on November 1, 2001. Written in an easy-to-understand and use format, Informed Decisions helps cancer patients and their loved ones make the right decisions -- informed decisions -- that fit their particular needs. The newly updated edition reflects the most recent developments in cancer diagnosis, care and prevention. The facts and figures included are the very latest available on every aspect of cancer. Individual copies can also be ordered on the American Cancer Society website or by calling 1-800-ACS-2345. The book’s list price is $29.95. If you are interested in receiving a review copy or interviewing the authors, please contact our office at 212-382-2169 or email jhenehan@cancer.org.

David Schwartz’s latest book for children, "Q IS FOR QUARK: A Science Alphabet Soup" will be published by Tricycle Press in September, 2001. A companion to his popular, award-winning math alphabet book, "G Is For Googol," this book brings the same slightly irreverent (but information-packed) humor to scientific words and concepts from "A is for Atom" to "Z is for Zzzzzzz" (about sleep). Between those two entries are the likes of "B is for Black Hole," "D is for DNA," "G is for Gravity," "R is for Rot," "M is for Music" (the science of sound), "N is for Natural Selection," "T is for Think" (the scientific method) and "W is for Wow!" Written for children in the upper elementary and middle school grades, and illustrated with dramatic (and often hilarious) pictures by Kim Doner, Q IS FOR QUARK is meant to challenge children to think, learn and have fun at the same time. The book can be purchased at local booksellers (the list price is $15.95) or directly from the author, who will be happy to sign it to the aspiring scientist of your choice. He may be contacted at million@pobox.com.

Although not about a book, Mike Riordan sends the following note: “I will have a review published in the August 19 “New York Times Book Review” -- of “Three Roads to Quantum Gravity,” by Lee Smolin (Basic Books).”

MEMBER AWARDS

"One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos" (Joseph Henry Press, 2000), a coffee-table book on astronomy and physics written by Hayden Planetarium astrophysicists Neil Tyson and Charles Liu and NCSWA member Rob Irion, has received the 2001 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for a scientist. Rob and his coauthors will go to Rochester in October for the award banquet. Apparently, they each will receive a huge wooden chair.

For conceiving, coordinating and writing much of a special issue on how the construction industry is trying to prevent a looming labor shortage by interesting K-12 students in math, science, design and construction, San Francisco resident David B. Rosenbaum is this year's winner of the Construction Writer's Association's Robert F. Boger Award for Special Reports. For that Oct. 30, 2000 issue, Engineering News-Record also won regional and national awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. And for the same issue, ENR was recognized as a finalist in the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards sponsored by American Business Media. ENR, published in New York City by the McGraw-Hill Companies, is the nation's only weekly magazine for the construction industry. Rosenbaum is ENR's West Coast bureau chief.

NCSWA member, Mike O’Neill, editor of BioBeat Online Magazine, one of the primary sponsors of NCSWA event at Ruby Skye nightclub during last February’s AAAS meeting, reports that: For the third consecutive year, BioBeat Online Magazine, an internet magazine published by life sciences company Applied Biosystems, has received the publishing industry's prestigious APEX Awards for Publishing Excellence. This year, the magazine and its editors/writers Michael D. O'Neill and Mark Springer received APEX Awards of Excellence in two different categories: Online Magazines & Journals and One- to Two-Person-Produced Web & Internet Sites. In addition, O'Neill was recognized with an APEX Grand Award in the category of writing for his article on the first complete sequencing of a human chromosome (chromosome 22). This story documented the critical role played by Applied Biosystems technology in this landmark scientific achievement. Entitled "First Human Chromosome Sequenced," this award-winning story can be accessed on the web.

APEX 2001 is the 13th annual awards program recognizing excellence in publications work by professional communicators. APEX Awards are presented on the basis of excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. APEX Grand Awards honor the outstanding works in each main category, while APEX Awards of Excellence recognize exceptional entries in each of the sub-categories. The APEX Awards competition is sponsored by Communications Concepts, Inc., an organization that helps publishing, PR, and marketing professionals improve publications and communications programs. Other APEX Award winners this year included the Walt Disney Company, the World Wildlife Fund, WGBH-TV, Sandia National Laboratories, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Arthritis Foundation, NASA, Motorola, the AARP, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, IBM, the American Red Cross, the American Bar Association, Medical World Publications, Mac Publishing, Honeywell International, Toyota, and the Mayo Clinic. Additional details regarding the APEX 2001 Awards are online.

UPCOMING LECTURES

Veterinarian Stephen W. Barthold, director of the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine and the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program will give the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine's annual Oscar W. Schalm Lecture on Monday, September 17, 2001. The public is cordially invited to attend this free event. The lecture, "Mouse Genomics: Phenotypes, No Phenotypes and Faux Phenotypes," will take place from noon to 1:00 pm in 170 Schalm Hall, located at the Medical Sciences Complex on the Davis campus. Barthold, who earned both his B.S. and D.V.M. degrees from UC Davis, joined the faculty in 1997. Among his many accomplishments, Barthold has been recognized for his groundbreaking research on Lyme disease. More info: Lynn Narlesky, School of Veterinary Medicine, lnarlesky@ucdavis.edu