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For further information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu
For Immediate Release: May 11, 2010
Contact: Gina Hebert, 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu
MBL Awards Journalism Fellowships
Biology “Boot Camp” to Provide Reporters with Hands-On Science Training in Woods Hole, Alaska, and Antarctica
WOODS HOLE, MA—Sixteen 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 Woods Hole, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.
Now in its 25th 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, to be held May 19-28, 2010, 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, to be held June 16 - July 2, 2010 gives journalists the unparalleled opportunity to travel to the MBL field stations in Alaska to be a part of some of today’s most cutting-edge ecological research. An additional Antarctica field experience will be awarded to select fellows shortly.
The 2010 MBL Science Journalism Fellows are:
Biomedical Fellows
Joseph Caputo, Staff Writer, KnowAtom, LLC
Amos Esty, Managing Editor, Dartmouth Medical Magazine
Tina Hesman Saey, Molecular Biology Writer, Science News *
Melanie Kaplan, Contributing Editor, CBS SmartPlanet
Onche Odeh, Senior Science Correspondent, Daily Independent newspaper, Nigeria
Melissa Salpietra, Managing Editor, Nova Online, WGBH
Cassandra Willyard, Freelance Science Writer
Polar Fellows
Victoria Barber, News Editor, The Arctic Sounder
Michael Barnes, Freelance Science Documentary Producer/Director
Julia Gross, Freelance Print Journalist, Germany
Louisa Jonas, Louisa Jonas Media
Julia Kumari Drapkin, Global Post, Argentina Correspondent
Susan Moran, Freelance Print Journalist
Ben Shaw, Producer/Editor, National Geographic Weekend
Chelsea Wald, Freelance Science Journalist
Gretchen Weber, Associate Producer, Climate Watch, KQED
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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, up to three journalists 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 275 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 Robin Marantz Henig, contributing writer, New York Times Magazine. The Polar Hands-On Laboratory course is directed by Dr. Christopher Neill, of the MBL’s Ecosystems Center and Angela Posada-Swafford, science writer/producer; US Correspondent, Muy Interesante Magazine, Madrid.
The 2010 Logan Science Journalism Program is supported in part by George and Harmon Logan, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Polar Fellowship is made possible through a grant from the National Science Foundation. For more information about the Logan Science Journalism Program, visit the SJP website.
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.
* Tina Hesman Saey has been named the Waksman Biomedical Fellow of the Logan Science Journalism Program. This fellowship honors Byron Waksman, a microbiologist, a long-time MBL scientist, and an ardent supporter of the MBL Logan Science Journalism Program.
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