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May 4, 2004
Eleven Science Journalists Awarded Fellowships to Study at the
Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA

WOODS HOLE, MA—Eleven science reporters, producers, and editors have been awarded Science Journalism Fellowships at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA, this summer. This is the program’s nineteenth year.

The MBL’s Science Journalism Program offers print and broadcast journalists and editors an opportunity to "step into the shoes of the scientists they cover" by awarding them fellowships to study basic biomedical and environmental science at the Woods Hole, MA, laboratory this summer. During their residencies at the MBL, fellows learn what science is like from the inside out as students and researchers in MBL summer courses and laboratories. Four fellows will also travel with MBL scientists later this summer to the North Slope of Alaska's Brooks Range to learn more about environmental research being conducted at a research site located on Toolik Lake.

All fellows will arrive in early June to participate in one of two hands-on mini laboratory courses—each designed specifically for the non-scientist. One course will explore techniques used in biomedical research—sequencing DNA, cloning, and PCR, for example—and the other will feature research techniques currently in use by ecosystems ecologists both in the field and in the laboratory.

The recipients of MBL Science Journalism Fellowships in biomedical science are:
  • Graham Collins, Editor, Scientific American
  • Catherine Clabby, Science Reporter, News & Observer
  • Elizabeth Cooney, Health Reporter, Telegram & Gazette
  • Karen Heyman, Freelance
  • Diana Kenney, Writer, Cape Cod Times
  • Jacqueline Mow, Freelance Producer


The recipients of MBL Science Journalism Fellowships in environmental science are:

  • John Carey, Senior Correspondent, BusinessWeek
  • Rebecca Clarren, Freelance
  • Adele Conover, Freelance
  • Elizabeth Grossman, Freelance
  • Eugene Russo, Freelance


MBL visiting investigator and Northwestern University professor Robert D. Goldman, and Knight Science Journalism Program director and former Science Journalism fellow, Boyce Rensberger, direct the Science Journalism Program. The Biomedical Hands-On Laboratory course is co-directed Dr. Robert Palazzo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Kerry Bloom, University of North Carolina. The Environment Hands-On Laboratory course is co-directed by Drs. Kenneth Foreman and Christopher Neill, both of the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Ecosystems Center.

The 2004 MBL Science Journalism Program is supported in part by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology, FASEB, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology, the National Science Foundation—Office of Polar Programs, NASA, the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, and The New York Times Company Foundation.

The Marine Biological Laboratory is an independent scientific institution, founded in 1888, dedicated to improving the human condition through basic research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science.