A J Hostetler has left the Associated Press in Atlanta to succeed Beverly Orndorff as science and medicine reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Orndorff spent 40 years at the Times-Dispatch, 37 of them as science and medicine writer. Upon his retirement, the Virginia Academy of Science gave him its highest honor, the Ivey S. Lewis Distinguished Service Award. Media General, parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, also gave $25,000 to Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communication to create a scholarship in his name. [PS from Hostetler: “Anyone with experience at succeeding a 40-year science-writing veteran is begged to send me tips.”]
Debra Gordon, medical writer at the Virginian-Pilot; Jon Hamilton, freelance health policy writer; and Joanne Silberner, health-policy correspondent for National Public Radio, have been named as 1997 Kaiser Media fellows. Each will receive a basic stipend of $45,000 for the year, plus travel expenses. The fellowship not only permits them to choose their own site of operation and subject of inquiry, but also to continue reporting for publication or broadcast.
James Spaulding reports that he has sold Stonegate Winery, which he has operated since he established it in 1973, and returned to the hillside in the Napa Valley that launched him into the wine business. He can be reached at the Spaulding Vineyard, 376 Kortum Canyon Road, Calistoga, CA 94515.
Gerald Present, who left IBM in Yorktown Heights, NY, to freelance, has been made director of communications, New York University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at the NYU Office of Public Affairs, Room 502, 25 W. 4th St., New York, NY 10012-1199; tel — 212-998-6838; gerald.present@nyu.edu.
C. Blake Powers has just signed a contract to produce a book, tentatively entitled The Encyclopedia of Aviation and Aerospace History, for Oryx Press. Powers, a pilot, has written extensively in the aerospace field and is looking forward to this project.
Andrew Skolnick is one of five journalists selected for the 1997-1998 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. He won’t have to take a leave from JAMA, but he will get $10,000 to help fund his project on access to mental health care for prisoners in the U.S. He also gets to make two trips to the Carter Center in Atlanta and to meet Rosalynn Carter, something he’s been “hoping to do for years.”
Diana Pabst Parsell reports a serious change of address, accompanying her husband to Jakarta, Indonesia, on a 2-year State Department assignment. Her new address is: Amer Emb — Econ, Box 1, Unit 8129, APO AP 96520.
David Lewin has moved from The Journal of NIH Research to The Journal of the National Cancer Institute as a senior editor. In addition, earlier this year he received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association for an article on autism, as part of the 1997 Robert L. Morse Award competition.
Amy Hansen is senior writer for Frontiers, the monthly newsletter of the National Science Foundation, which was recently selected as a “Cool Science Winner” by Omni OnLine.
David Lindley’s latest book, co-authored with Rob Desalle, is The Science of Jurassic Park and the Lost World, Or How to Build a Dinosaur, published by Basic Books. David’s been doing a whirlwind media tour, as well as presentations at many of the nation’s leading science museums. “The media interest has been enormous,” he says. “I’m astonished by the extent to which people really are interested in the science of this.”
Karen Young Kreeger has left The Scientist to work as a science writer for the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. She also reports that she is “still working feverishly on my book on non-traditional science careers.” She can be reached at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center Department of Public Affairs. 202 Blockley Hall, 420 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021; e-mail: kreeger@mail.med.upenn.edu
Larry Bernard writes that he is leaving Cornell where he has been senior science editor, to become Director of Public Affairs of the Schepens Eye Research Institute, 20 Stanford St., Boston, MA 02114. He will be reachable at 617-723-6078 ext 544 and by e-mail: bernard@vision.eri.harvard.edu.
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