NEW SCIENCE JOURNALISM PRIZE ANNOUNCED BY THE WISTAR INSTITUTE

The Wistar Institute is accepting entries for a new Science Journalism Award and Seminar to honor insightful and enterprising reporting on the basic biomedical sciences.

The work may be direct reporting on a significant research advance, an exploration of the fundamental science underlying a major news story, the identification of an emerging trend in scientific thinking, or a thoughtful investigation of the research process. Journalism that expresses the same kind of skepticism encouraged by science itself will be given particular attention, as will coverage with the prescience to identify and illuminate the significance of research that may appear, at first glance, to be more limited in scope.

Up to five stories from an individual journalist or team of journalists may be submitted as an entry. These may be selections from a series or a collection of stories representative of the entrant’s coverage of the basic biomedical sciences. Books are not eligible. The work must have been published or broadcast in English in the United States between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2003. The deadline for submission is Feb. 29, 2004.

A certificate and cash prize of $5,000 will be presented to the winner of the first Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award at a banquet at the institute, in Philadelphia, on June 4, 2004. Travel expenses for the winner to attend the seminar and award ceremony will be covered.

The Wistar Institute (www.wistar.upenn.edu) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research institution founded in 1892.

For more information on The Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award visit www.wistar.upenn.edu/news_info/award.html or contact Franklin Hoke at 215-898-3716 or hoke@wistar.upenn.edu.

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(Source: The Wistar Institute)