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OUR GANGby Jeff Grabmeier Still shining brightly. Longtime Newsday science writer Bob Cooke has retired. Well, he has officially retired, but don’t expect him to disappear. “I’m going to continue writing on a freelance/contract basis for Newsday, while also scrounging around to see who will buy any other copy,” he reports. While Bob lives on Long Island for now, he hopes to move back to the Boston area soon where he hopes to do volunteer work “as a way of saying thanks to all the people who’ve helped me all these years.” He adds, “I also hope all my science writing friends will struggle to keep in touch; I’ll try to make it worthwhile.” You can still find Bob at ichiabod@aol.com. A well-tuned radio telescope. Bill Hammack is going to have to expand his trophy shelf. Along with his 2002 Science-In-Society Award, Bill will have to make room for the 2003 President’s Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. He is being recognized for his weekly public radio series Engineering and Life, which is produced at WILL-AM 580 in Urbana, IL, and distributed via satellite by Illinois Public Radio. He has created nearly 200 commentaries that the ASEE says “share with the public the excitement and wonder of engineering. His commentaries explore the role and ramifications of science and technology within the broader society, and also emphasize the creative aspects of being an engineer.” Send your best wishes to hammack@netbox.com. Getting a Big Bang out of her work. Patricia Thomas reports that she spent a most enjoyable 2002-03 academic year as visiting scholar at the Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University, where she taught science feature writing to graduate students and struck out in some new directions of her own. As part of The Century Foundation’s homeland security project, she wrote a case study analyzing how government agencies managed news of the 2001 anthrax bioterrorism issue and how the press responded. This report can be found at www.tcf.org. Patricia says “One thing led to another, and I was invited to contribute a chapter to the book The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, an essay collection organized by the Century Foundation and released in June 2003 by public affairs.” Her chapter is called “From Saviors to Suspects: New Threats to Infectious Disease Research,” and it explores how the Patriot Act and other Bush administration initiatives are affecting life-science research. Information about the book can be found at www.waronourfreedoms.com. Patricia is at pthomas@tiac.net. Out of this world! Rebecca Skloot has sold her book The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks to Crown Books in a hotly contested multibidder auction. In June, Skloot left her position as life sciences editor at Popular Science magazine to become their life sciences contributing editor in order to focus on her book full time. For more information, and to contact Rebecca, go to www.rebeccaskloot.com. Halley’s Comet returns. While Halley’s comet returns every 76 years, we at Ohio State University only had to wait two years for Darrell Ward to find his way back. Darrell left Ohio State to write about medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Now he is returning as associate director of cancer and public health communications to provide support for the university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and James Cancer Hospital. Welcome back, Darrell! Visit him virtually at ward-15@medctr.osu.edu. Shining star. Reactive Reports (www.reactivereports.com), a Webzine produced by freelancer David Bradley, was named a recipient of the prestigious Scientific American Sci/Tech Awards. The awards, in their third year, honor 50 of the best Web resources for those seeking information on science and technology. David produces the Webzine for the Russian-Canadian chemistry software company ACD/Labs. The editors of Scientific American said that Reactive Reports “serves up engaging news stories” about diverse subjects such as using catnip to combat termites, and the development of an environmentally friendly car tire. Reactive Reports and his other Webzines—Spectral Lines, Spotlight, and Elemental Discoveries—are all available through the sciencebase.com portal. Congratulate David at davidbradley@nasw.org. New phase to her moon. As of July, Nancy McGuire is now a senior Web Associate with chemistry.org, the American Chemical Society’s Web portal. Nancy reports “I’m classified as a ‘content provider’ (which used to be called writing and editing). Mostly, I write weekly articles for the ‘Professionals and Enthusiasts’ sections of the Web site.” Previously, she was on staff at Today’s Chemist at Work and Modern Drug Discovery, two of ACS’s trade magazines. Nancy’s e-mail is n_mcguire@acs.org. A supernova over California. The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, announced the appointment of Rosalind Reid as one of its Journalist Fellows for 2003-04. Rosalind has been editor, since 1992, of American Scientist, the interdisciplinary magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. The purpose of the Journalist in Residence program is to promote excellence in scientific journalism by bringing journalists, science writers, and science editors in contact with physicists working at the frontiers of science, and by educating physicists on how to communicate their science to the general public. Contact Rosalind at reid@amsci.org. Off to a new galaxy. Fenella Saunders reports that “after eight fantastic years at Discover magazine” she is moving on. As of the end of August, she is the new science writer/editor for the New York University School of Medicine. Mostly, she will be writing for the NYU Physician magazine and the School of Medicine’s newspaper, although she may also be writing some news releases. She also intends to start freelancing. Fenella’s new e-mail address is fenella.saunders@med.nyu.edu. Light years ahead of the rest. Freelancer Hal Hellman was one of the experts featured in Mavericks, Miracles, and Medicine, a four-part television series that premiered on the History Channel, in September. Hal was chosen, thanks, in part, to his book Great Feuds in Medicine. Published in 2001, it has gone into paperback, and has been translated, so far, into Korean, Hebrew, Spanish, and Italian. You can reach Hal at hal.hellman@earthlink.net and check out his Web site at www.greatfeuds.com. Off like a rocket! Faith Reidenbach, a freelance writer based in Ashland, Ohio, won the 2003 American Medical Writers Association Martin Memorial Award, in the consumer writing division. Faith won for an article in CURE magazine, “Conceiving Solutions: Fertility and Cancer Treatment.” Congratulate Faith at FaithReidenbach@aol.com. Another moon in her orbit. A’ndrea Elyse Messer, a science and research information officer at Penn State, has been named chair of the Gene S. Stuart Award of the Society for American Archaeology. The award is given to the most interesting and responsible original story or series about any archaeological topic published in a newspaper with a circulation of at least 25,000. But for NASW members who are interested in entering the award competition, A’ndrea has one caution: “Dinosaur stories are not, I repeat, not eligible for this award. Contrary to popular belief and the Flintstones, dinosaurs died out before humans come on the scene.” For more information about the award, or to discuss your favorite Flintstones episode, contact A’ndrea at aem1@psu.edu. A (solar?) flair for writing. Kelli Whitlock, manager of media relations and publications at the Whitehead Institute, has received the Clarion Award for Best Feature Article from the Association for Women in Communications. The award was presented for an article on AIDS in rural America that was published in Perspectives, Ohio University’s research magazine. Kelli is at whitlock@wi.mit.edu. Pointing his telescope in a new direction. After seven years in Research Triangle Park, NC, Bob Nellis is now the research communications consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. His job is to coordinate efforts to bring greater visibility to Mayo’s basic research (in contrast to its well-known clinical trials). “More than 800 people are conducting lab research here,” Bob writes. He oversees Mayo’s research Web site (www.mayo.edu/research), which includes the latest on neuroscience, cancer, cardiovascular studies, along with proteomics and biotechnology, “but there’s plenty more.” Bob can reached at bobnellis@nasw.org or nellis.robert@mayo.edu. Star light, star bright. After nearly nine years at the Whitehead Institute, Seema Kumar has left for a new challenge. Seema is now vice president for communications and member of the Management Board at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development in Raritan, NJ. As vice president, Seema’s mandate is to broaden worldwide awareness of J&JPRD (and its global sites). As a member of J&JPRD’s management board, she will also contribute to overall organizational management. Seema’s new coordinates are seema@prdus.jnj.com. Give her a Milky Way. Another science writer leaving the Boston area for New Jersey is Vivien Marx. After five years as a full-time freelancer, Vivien has become senior editor at Genomics and Proteomics, a monthly published by Reed Business Information in Morris Plains, NJ. She reports she will be looking for freelancers: “great writers, interdisciplinary thinkers, and the many types of NASWians.” (And maybe someone who can come up with a better term for us than NASWians!) Vivien is doing some science herself: “I am also stocking up on chocolate in order to enroll some of my new colleagues in my long-running study on the effects of chocolate consumption on humans. Dangerous science, but someone has to do it.” Enroll in Vivien’s study at vmarx@nasw.org. A constellation of talents. C. Blake Powers has been busy returning to full-time freelancing, but not so busy as to give up cooking. Rather than continuing to pay to take lessons out-of-state, he talked a chef into hiring him for the purposes of learning how to cook in a restaurant. In this case, at the national award-winning 801 Franklin (www.801franklin.com) in Huntsville, AL. In addition to his culinary exploits, Blake has developed a new professional Web site, http://blakepowers.net, as a means to develop new business and to learn Web design software and HTML coding. He is also doing online commentary and punditry, is working with Synectics Design (www.synecticsdesign.com) in a unique cooperative networking venture, and is also pursuing a number of magazine story queries and assignments. Give Blake your take-out order at blake@blakepowers.net. # Jeff Grabmeier is assistant director of research communications at
Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Send news about your life to Jeff
at Grabmeier@nasw.org. |
