Ten journalists from the United States, Japan, Argentina and the Czech Republic have been selected to spend the 2004-05 academic year on campus as the 22nd class of Knight Science Journalism Fellows.
The incoming Knight Fellows, who will be taking classes, attending seminars and conducting interviews at MIT through the year, are part of the Program on Science, Technology and Society (STS). The new group, all working journalists who will be taking a sabbatical year to study here, comprises:
Brian Bergstein, who has been covering electronic technology for the Associated Press.
Ingfei Chen, a free-lancer who has written most recently for The New York Times, Discover and Science magazine's web-based "Science of Aging Knowledge Environment."
Judy Fahys, the environment reporter of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Justin Gillis, biotechnology reporter for The Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1989.
Taro Mitamura, a television science reporter for NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corp.
Colin Nickerson, a longtime foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe who is making a transition to full-time science coverage.
Valeria Roman, science and medical reporter for Clarin, the largest daily newspaper in Argentina.
Jeff Tollefson, science reporter at the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.
Martin Uhlir, science reporter for Lidove Noviny, one of the biggest daily newspapers in the Czech Republic.
Sylvia Pagan Westphal, reporter for New Scientist magazine. She has a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard and was previously a science reporter for The Los Angeles Times.
The new Knight Fellows were chosen by a committee that included Professor Deborah Fitzgerald of STS; Judy Foreman, a nationally syndicated health columnist and former Knight Fellow; Dan Haney, medical writer for the Associated Press; and Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellows program.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 19, 2004 (download PDF).