1998 Science in Society Journalism Award winners
Magazine
David Stipp and Robert Whitaker
Newspaper
Robert Langreth
“Revolution in Genetics Arms Cancer Fighter With Potent Weapons”
Broadcast
Jon Palfreman
“The Last Battle of the Gulf War”
Jon Palfreman had the difficult task of producing a television documentary on the status of the so-called “Gulf War Syndrome.” Tens of thousands of veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War are reporting a myriad of symptoms, ranging from psychiartric problems to birth defects in their children which they blame on their service in the war. Yet the scientific community has found not evidence such a disorder exists. The suffereings undoubtedly are real; the existence of a syndrome, caused by their experience in combat, apparently is not.
Jon Palfreman is one of the few producers to work consistently for both PBS’s Nova and Frontline. A veteran science writer and producer for both British and American television, he has made more than 30 PBS documentaries, including the Peabody Award-winning series, “The Machine that Changed the World,” and the Emmy-winning NOVA program, “Siamese Twins.”
In recent years Palfreman has specialized in complex and controversial stories on the intersection of science, politics, and law. These include the Frontline documentaries “Prisoners of Science,” a documentary about autism; “The Nicotine War"; “Currents of Fear,” which was about the alleged link between power lines and cancer; “Breast Implants on Trial,” which was about the silicon implant controversy; “Nuclear Reaction,” which was a critical analysis of America’s attitudes on nuclear energy; and “Last Battle of the Gulf War,” which examined Gulf War Syndrome.
Palfreman graduated from University College, London, with First Class Honors in Physics and has an M.S. degree in history and philosophy of science from Sussex University.
