Victor K. McElheny plans to retire as Director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellows at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 30 June 1998. He will continue to be associated with MIT. A committee to search for a successor has been formed, headed by Professor Philip S. Khoury, Dean of MIT’s School of Humanities and Social Science. Applications for the post are being received between 1 September and 1 November.
The Knight Fellowships are an activity of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society, a unit of the School of Humanities and Social Science. The Fellowships are intended 1) to involve scientists and engineers more deeply in the career-development of science journalists, 2) to widen the array of sources for experienced, committed science journalists, and 3) to contribute to continued raising the standards of science journalism.
In 15 years as director, McElheny designed and led the program, which includes some 55 Fellows’ seminars with faculty members each year. He was also involved in raising the money to get the program going, and to ensure its continuance. The first operating funds, totaling $1.5 million, came from the Alfred P. Sloan and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations. In 1987, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami committed $3.25 million for seven years’ operation. In 1989, the Knight Foundation issued a $5 million, five-year challenge, which MIT matched with an additional $2.5 million. Thereby, the Fellowships became endowed at the end of 1994. Endowment income has reached the point where, starting with the 1998-99 academic year, the stipend per Fellow can be raised 25 percent, from $28,000 to $35,000.
With the help of MIT faculty and leading science journalists on its selection committee, fifteen classes of Fellows have been named. The total of 154 Fellows so far came from more than half the states and from 14 foreign countries on six continents.
In 1993-94, McElheny took leave from MIT to begin writing a biography of Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, with support from the Sloan Foundation technology series. The book is to be published in 1998 by Addison-Wesley.