For further information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu

For Immediate Release: May 22, 2009
Contact: Gina Hebert, 508-289-7725, ghebert@mbl.edu

Biology “Boot Camp” to Provide Reporters with Hands-On Science Training in Woods Hole, Alaska, and Antarctica

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA—Fifteen science writers and editors have been awarded prestigious Logan Science Journalism Fellowships from the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory), an internationally known biomedical and environmental research and educational center located in the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

Now in its 24th year, the MBL’s Logan Science Journalism Program allows established science journalists from around the globe to “step into the shoes of the scientists they cover” by immersing themselves in the process of basic biomedical and environmental research.

The fellowship program offers two hands-on courses. The biomedical course provides journalists hands-on science training in Woods Hole during the MBL’s famed summer research season, when hundreds of biologists gather at the institution from around the world to conduct research and to teach and learn advanced-level science and research techniques. The polar course gives journalists the unparalleled opportunity to travel to MBL field stations in Alaska and Antarctica to be a part of some of today’s most cutting-edge ecological research.

This year’s MBL Science Journalism Fellows are:

Polar Fellows
Jude Isabella, YES Magazine
Lisa Jarvis, Chemical & Engineering News
Tracey Logan, Freelance
Alisa Opar, Audubon Magazine
Jane Qiu, Nature Magazine
Charles Ray, South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Kelly Rockwell, Greenrock Pictures
Emily Stone, Freelance
Angela Posada-Swafford, Muy Interesante*
Jennifer Weiss, The Star-Ledger

*Antarctica Fellow

Biomedical Fellows
Kimani Chege, Science Development Network
Julia Kumari Drapkin, Stringer, “PRI, The World”
Christine Junge, Harvard Health Publications
Massimo Roncati, L’Hobby Della Scienza e Della Technica
Juliana Tiraboschi, Galileu Magazine

During their residencies, fellows will learn what science is like from the inside out. In late May and early June, biomedical fellows will participate a hands-on laboratory course that will explore techniques used in biomedical research—sequencing DNA, cloning, and PCR (polymerase chain reaction), for example.

Journalists selected for the MBL’s Polar Fellowship, created in 2008 in conjunction with the International Polar Year, will travel to the foothills of Alaska’s Brooks Range, home of the National Science Foundation’s field site at Toolik Lake. There they will participate in a weeklong hands-on course focusing on key science questions in polar research. Following the course, the journalists will team up with research scientists to work side-by-side with them in the field and laboratory. This winter, one Polar Fellow will spend an additional month with scientists studying the effects of climate change and ecosystem function at Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula.

To date, the Logan Science Journalism Program has granted fellowships to more than 260 journalists from a wide range of news organizations, including The New York Times, Science, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, CNN, and Scientific American. It is also gaining cachet with journalists overseas, and includes alumni from such far-reaching places as Africa, Brazil, Sweden, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

The Biomedical Hands-On Laboratory course is directed by Dr. David Burgess of Boston College and the Polar Hands-On Laboratory course is directed by Dr. Christopher Neill, of the MBL’s Ecosystems Center.

The 2009 Logan Science Journalism Program is supported in part by George and Harmon Logan, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, The New York Times Company Foundation, the Society for Neuroscience, and numerous friends and alumni of the program. The Polar Fellowship is made possible through a grant from the National Science Foundation. For more information about the Logan Science Journalism Program, visit www.mbl.edu/sjp.

The MBL is a leading international, independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to discovery and to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Americas.