Fellowships in Science Writing - A Sampling

Compiled by Charlie Petit

Fellowships, sabbaticals, workshops, and even self-composed breaks from looming deadlines can be wonderful pick-me-ups. They hone understanding of the rich world of scientific discovery and news. They provide oases from the neuroses, anxieties, and occasional tediums of our mainly marvelous jobs. They can provide new insights into our beats, fresh career perspectives and, at times, opportunities for expanding or focussing professional ambitions. A fellowship may be the catalyst to finally write that big book, conquer multimedia, or attain some semblance of actual authority in a fascinating but daunting subject. They tend to be fun; they tend to be good for you.

Many institutions, foundations, and similar organizations recognize the benefit to society that such fellowships generate via informed science reporting. Sponsors often pay full costs of attendance. Some last just a few days. Longer fellowships that can seriously interrupt income commonly include stipends that, with good planning, permit attendance without losing money.

The following list is a sampling. It's just a tip list to characterize what's out there. Be sure to check thoroughly on your own before starting full pursuit. Many fellowships not listed, while not strictly for science writers, do welcome them including the Nieman program at Harvard. And while reporters for national publications or networks inevitably have a leg up, most programs regularly accept freelancers and employee s of regional publications.

General Sources - two websites with many links

1. Columbia Journalism Review's journalismjobs.com site includes a listing of many major fellowship in all fields.

2. A list of both awards and fellowships, again in all beats, by the International Journalists Network.

Extended Fellowships (many weeks to many months)

The Knight Foundation, set up by the newspaper publishing family, is among the most generous sponsors of professional development programs.They include many fellowships. An overview is on its website. Prime examples include:

1. Knight Science Journalism Fellowships. This is perhaps the best known and among the more competitive of the big fellowships, with a $45,000 stipend for a full academic year at MIT with additional course auditing priviliges at Harvard, many field trips, seminars, and companionship with the ten or so fellows selected each year. Full info and contacts are online.

2. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists (Stanford). Another heavyweight (and a real plum if you get one). A full year with a $55,000 stipend plus housing. It accepts about a dozen each year. While it is for all specialties, winners have included many science, technology, and medical writers.

Other Extended Fellowships

3. Kaiser Family Foundation Media Fellowships in Health: A very flexible program for health and medical reporters. Fellowships may last a few months or a year, with a $55,000 annualized stipend plus program-related expenses. Fellows often work on focussed topics aimed at producing an in-depth story, book, program, or other project, and may base themselves from home or a pertinent research institution. One can even hold down another, parttime job during the fellowship. This year it selected five fellows from about 100 applicants.

4. Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism: An academic year at the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder. $40,000 stipend sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation. Seminars, courses, fieldtrips, etc. It admits five fellows per year. The focus is on environmental journalism but applicants need not be primarily on the environment beat. One does need five years experience as a fulltime journalist, either staff or freelance.

5. Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Journalism Fellowships - Spend up to five months at UC Santa Barbara in the rarefied company of many of the world's leading physicists. Fellows are expected to take part in institute activities, perhaps give an occasional seminar, etc. The stipend is "flexible," you get your own office, they help arrange housing, and the beach is nearby. Right now the place is decked in streamers because its director David Gross just got a Nobel Prize for helping to explain why quarks can't go solo. http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/journalist/

6. Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Journalist in Residence - Another flexible program, and with a wonderful view from the Berkeley hills above the UC campus. KC Cole of the LA Times, today's opening workshop speaker and panelist, was its first journalist in residence. It usually has one journalist resident at a time. At this writing it is between sponsors (ie no money for this) so is not accepting applications but plans to resume it as soon as possible. If n-dimensional spaces, abstract algebra, or Poincare's conjecture would be your cup of tea if only you had a clue to what it is, keep it in mind. http://www.msri.org/activities/jir/index.html

Briefer Fellowships

1. Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Media Fellowships. A dispersed fellowship program that pays half the transportation costs (up to $300) plus room and board for short fellowships of a few days to a week at participating colleges and universities around the country, usually during the spring. This year 16 institutions hosted fellows in groups ranging in size from a handful to dozens. All beats are included but programs in health, medicine, science, technology, and environment show up regularly on the list. This year's lineup included marine sciences at the University of Maine, Bioengineering at University of Pittsburgh, Nanotechnology at Rice, and Woman's Health at the University of Virginia.

2. Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory Science Journalism Program: One of the more venerable fellowship programs around, this one focusses on immersing its annual summertime class of a dozen or so fellows in laboratory and field science. Everybody seems to get to clone, splice, or dice a gene while living on charming Cape Cod. Most fellows stay for a one week course, but there are options to spend three to seven weeks with researchers in the field. One slot is available each year for research in the arctic. No stipend but MBL covers food, lodging, and travel.

3. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Science Writing Fellowships: Easily confused with the MBL program above, this one started only five years ago and has a much greater stress on marine environmental sciences, oceanography, and the technology of ocean sciences. Same charming locale, however, and each September it introduces its fellows to a concentrated round of encounters, talks, meals, and seminars with the institution's scientific and engineering staff. Most fellowships are one week; a second week focussed on a specific topic may be arranged. Travel, room, board all covered.

4. Kaiser Family Foundation Mini-Fellowships for HIV-AIDS - Travel and research grants for reporters covering AIDS in the US as well as internationally. This is essentially a grant to assist specific story projects, with amounts typically about $10,000 for print or radio reporters, and $20,000 for TV.