Knight Science Journalism, your local host for ScienceWriters2015, looks forward to seeing you in Cambridge! We encourage you to check out our conference blog, where we'll share announcements, updates, and information about our speakers, partners, and sponsors and special events during the conference. Selecting a specific blog post will take you over to a whole set of KSJ welcome pages, including a lineup of fun things to do while you're in town.

It's HUBweek!

From October 3-10, Boston’s first-ever HUBweek, a weeklong celebration of innovation and creativity, will feature over 40 events that showcase the world-class work happening at the intersection of art, science, and technology across Boston and Cambridge. HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration between the Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Most events are free and open to the public, and include:

• "Let's Talk About Food," a series of interactive demos and discussions with Boston chefs, nutritionists, and food policy experts on October
• "The Fenway Forum: What’s the Right Thing to Do? an unprecedented civic discussion on ethical issues & the meaning of citizenship at Fenway Park, led by Harvard professor & philosopher Michael Sandel on October 4th
• “ILLUMINUS”, a contemporary art festival that will transform Boston’s historic Lansdowne Street into a vibrant urban canvas from October 3-4
• “GlobeDocs Film Festival”, a five-day interactive community event series at theaters throughout Boston to engage, promote and celebrate documentary film October 7 – 11.
• "Beautiful Brain," an exploration of state-of-the-art methods in brain imaging, to be held in the historic Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital
• "A Kendall Square Celebration," a neighborhood activation to showcase the work from the companies, organizations and institutions that call Kendall Square home. From open lobbies to documentary film to discussions about the future of entrepreneurship, all are invited to join an afternoon and evening to celebrate innovation in Kendall Square.
• “#Tech4Democracy Showcase & Challenge”, where students, entrepreneurs & community members showcase their ideas for new apps, web platforms and programs that leverage technology to improve the quality of democratic governance.

You can check out HUBweek events on KSJ's Things to Do page, and the full lineup of HUBweek events is at www.hubweek.org. Events are individually ticketed and all will be open for registration on September 9.

Solve

Part of MIT’s contribution to HUBweek is Solve, a gathering of technologists, philanthropists, business leaders, policy makers, and change agents produced by MIT Technology Review. Solve participants will tackle challenges in the areas of education, healthcare, energy, and jobs & infrastructure. Solve begins on October 5 and wraps up on October 8. Information available at solve.mit.edu.

Kavli Workshop on Nanotechnology

For journalists covering energy, medicine, the environment and other fields impacted by developments in nanotechnology, KSJ is organizing a half-day Kavli Science Journalism Workshop on Nanotechnology on October 9. Five of MIT and Harvard’s top scientists working at the nano-scale will explore their newest research and latest on promising developments in the field. Update 9/3/15: The application deadline for the Kavli workshop has now passed and registration for the event is full.

STAT Panel and Q&A with Eric Lander: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Life Sciences

The Gold sponsor for ScienceWriters2015 is STAT, a new online publication from Boston Globe Media reporting from the frontiers of health and medicine. We urge you to attend STAT's October 9 public forum, organized in partnership with HUBweek, on Dispatches from the Front Lines of Life Sciences. It's scheduled for 3:00-5:30 pm at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard in Kendall Square—so make plans to attend on your way to the ScienceWriters2015 Welcome Reception, just a short walk away on the MIT campus.

The STAT event will feature a Q&A with Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, as well as a conversation between STAT editor Rick Berke and veteran science writers Sharon Begley and Carl Zimmer.

STAT is reserving seats at the forum especially for attendees of ScienceWriters2015. Register here; click on "Enter promotional code" and enter the code SCIENCE. 

(On October 11, STAT will also host the traditional ScienceWriters Sunday night bash at Boston Globe headquarters.)

Sightseeing in Boston and Beyond

Conference attendees can tour attractions like the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium. Whale-watching cruises depart regularly from Boston’s wharfs. The Freedom Trail hits all the important spots in Boston’s revolutionary history, and crosses the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the 15-acre jewel atop the central artery tunnel created by the $22 billion Big Dig.

Indulge

The Boston/Cambridge nexus is also a foodie’s paradise. Trendy, top-rated Boston resturants include O Ya, Uni, Ribelle, Asta, Menton, Coppa, Neptune Oyster, L’Espalier and Island Creek Oyster Bar, while Cambridge and Somerville boast spots like T.W. Food, Sarma, Craigie on Main, Oleana, Alden & Harlow, Giulia, Bondir, Area Four, and Catalyst. See our blog post Where to Eat in Cambridge and Boston for more suggestions.

Getting around MIT

To familiarize yourself with the MIT campus, try clicking on the red placemarks on the interactive Google Map below. On Oct. 9, the Knight Science Journalism welcome reception will be at Walker Memorial on the MIT campus.

• On October 10, NASW workshops and the awards gala will be at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, at the far west side of the map.
• On October 11 and 12, CASW New Horizons talks will be at Kresge Auditorium and the MIT Student Center, near Massachusetts Avenue.
• "Lunch With a Luminary" sessions on October 11 and 12 will be at the Student Center and MIT's Building 4.
• Destinations for walking tours on October 11, 12, and 13 include the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Draper Laboratory, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Biogen, and the Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research.

Buses will be provided for trips to more distant event and tour locations such as the Boston Globe, the BU Photonics Center, the BU National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and Woods Hole.