Speakers

Speakers

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WK
NASW workshop
NH
CASW New Horizons in Science
LL
Lunch with a Luminary

  • WK
    Lila Guterman

    Deputy managing editor, departments, Science News

    Lila Guterman came to Science News as deputy managing editor for news in January 2013 after editing online news at Chemical and Engineering News. Previously, she wrote about science research, publishing, and ethics for the Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2008. Other publications she has written for include Science, Nature, Cell, New Scientist, the Washington Post, the Economist, and Columbia Journalism Review. Lila has bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from Harvard University and Caltech, and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. Among the honors her writing has received are the Clark Payne award for young science writers, third place in the Society for Environmental Journalists' Awards for Reporting on the Environment, the American Society of Anesthesiologists Media Award, and a finalist honor for the Livingston Awards. She became deputy managing editor for departments in November 2014.

    Speaking:

  • NH
    Alan Guth

    Victor F. Weisskopf professor of physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    As a postdoctoral researcher after completing his Ph.D. in physics at MIT in 1971, Alan Guth worked mostly on abstract mathematical problems in the theory of elementary particles. While at Cornell, he was persuaded by fellow postdoc Henry Tye to collaborate on work that would change the direction of Guth's career. The two found that standard assumptions in particle physics and cosmology would lead to a fantastic overproduction of magnetic monopoles. From the search for alternatives came Guth's modification of the big bang theory, the inflationary universe. Since returning to MIT as an associate professor in 1980, Guth has refined the inflationary model through interactions with theorists in particle physics, string theory, relativity and quantum mechanics as well as evidence from astronomy and cosmology. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been awarded the MIT School of Science Prize for Undergraduate Teaching, the Franklin Medal for Physics of the Franklin Institute, and the Dirac Prize of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics. In addition to holding a named professorship, he is a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT.

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  • NH
    Tara Haelle

    Freelance science journalist

    Tara Haelle specializes in writing about vaccines, infectious disease, pediatrics, prenatal health and other areas of medicine as well as marine biology and environmental science. She is a Forbes contributor whose work also appears in NPR, Scientific American, Slate, Politico, HealthDay, Everyday Health, Medscape, Muse, Science News for Students, Washington Post, Wired and elsewhere. She coauthored The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Guide to the First Four Years, due in April 2016, with Emily Willingham, and she blogs about evidence-based parenting at Red Wine & Applesauce. She enjoys writing for children and blogs for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute at Science & the Sea. She draws on her years as a high school teacher, test prep tutor and college adjunct instructor to inform the way she writes about science and to explain complex ideas in accessible prose. As medical core topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists, she creates resources for journalists to report on medical research. Haelle holds a master's in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and her photography has appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Chicago Sun-Times and Women's Wear Daily. In a past life, she traveled the world—backpacking, hiking, train-hopping and motorbiking through more than 40 countries on six continents while eating strange insects, trekking to ancient ruins and swimming with sharks and then she became a mom to two boys and embarked on a whole new kind of adventure that heavily influences the topics she reports on. Twitter: @tarahaelle

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  • NH
    William N. Hait

    Global head, research and development, Janssen Research & Development, Johnson & Johnson

    Bill Hait is an oncologist who heads Janssen R&D, the global pharmaceutical research and development group of Johnson & Johnson. He holds an MD and a PhD in pharmacology from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He joined the Yale University School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and rose to chief of the Division of Medical Oncology, taking leadership roles in the breast cancer and lung cancer programs of the Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center. A former president of the American Association for Cancer Research and a Fellow of the AACR Academy, he has served as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research and associate editor of Cancer Research. Before joining Janssen R&D, he was founding director of The (Rutgers) Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

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  • NH
    Jo Handelsman

    Associate director for science, U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and Frederick Phineas Rose Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (on leave), Yale University

    Appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in June 2014, biologist Jo Handelsman has taken a public service leave from Yale University to focus on advancing basic research and developing targeted areas in biological research, STEM education, and diversity in science. During her White House service, Handelsman’s Yale laboratory is continuing its work under the direction of two of her former graduate students, carrying out studies to understand diversity in microbial communities and the role of these communities in infectious disease. Current research uses the fruit fly gut as a model for the microbiology of the human gut and employs functional metagenomics to probe microbial communities’ genetic and biochemical diversity. Handelsman, who is making her third appearance at CASW's New Horizons in Science, earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined UW’s plant pathology faculty in 1985. After serving in a number of roles, including chair of the Department of Bacteriology, she moved to Yale in 2010. At both universities she has been instrumental in founding and directing programs that teach the principles and practices of evidence-based education to current and future faculty at colleges and universities nationwide. Her teaching, mentorship and research and her promotion of opportunities for women and minorities in science have been recognized with a number of awards.She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2011 and also co-chaired the PCAST working group that developed Engage to Excel, a 2012 report making recommendations for strengthening STEM education to meet workforce needs. She has also served the scientific community as a panel member, peer reviewer and journal editor and as president of the American Society for Microbiology. Twitter: @Jo_OSTP

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  • WK
    Thomas Hayden

    Director, environmental communication master's program, Stanford University, and co-editor, The Science Writers' Handbook

    Thomas Hayden directs the environmental communication master of arts program at Stanford University, in California. He has been an oceanographer, a staffer at Newsweek and a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report, and a freelance science journalist whose cover stories have appeared in Wired, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. He is coauthor of On Call in Hell, a national bestseller about battlefield medicine, and Sex and War, about the biological and social evolution of warfare. He is co-editor of and a contributor to The Science Writer’s Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish, and Prosper in the Digital Age. (Trish Tunney photo)

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  • WK
    Laura Helmuth

    Science and health editor, Slate

    Laura Helmuth is the science and health editor for Slate magazine, based in Washington, D.C., and the vice president of the National Association of Science Writers. She was previously the science editor for Smithsonian magazine and a writer and editor for Science magazine’s news department and its daily news site, ScienceNOW. She serves on the boards of SFARI.org and High Country News. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley.

    Pitch Guidelines

    Helmuth considers a pitch the start of a conversation; feel free to email her a few paragraphs to introduce the idea and explain your angle on it. Slate is open to covering all fields of science. It helps if a science or health story also has a political, cultural, or counter-intuitive angle. Slate is particularly interested in stories that have an argument or opinion, and stories that make you mad or make you laugh.

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  • WK
    Robin Marantz Henig

    Freelance journalist; President, NASW

    Robin Marantz Henig is a freelance journalist, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and an adjunct professor of journalism at NYU. She has written nine books, including The Monk in the Garden, Pandora's Baby, and, most recently, Twentysomething (co-authored with her daughter, Samantha Henig). Robin co-edited the Field Guide for Science Writers, and articles of hers were chosen to be in the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2014. She's a former Guggenheim Foundation fellow, and is the current president of NASW. She and her husband Jeff live in Manhattan.

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  • LL
    Maia Heymann

    Senior managing director, CommonAngels

    Maia Heymannn has worked with dozens of start-ups and growth companies, in Boston and Palo Alto, throughout her 20+ year career as an angel investor, venture capitalist, and tech banker. She has made equity investments, personally as an angel, and professionally as a venture capitalist, in over 40 technology companies. In 2012 Heymann was named by Xconomy as a top angel investor in New England. Maia joined CommonAngels in a full-time, leadership role after having been a CommonAngels investor since 2006, a board member since 2009, and chairman from 2010-2011. She is the board observer for CommonAngels on HapYak and Linkable Networks, and also manages the fund’s investments in Coherent Path, Disruptor Beam, docTrackr, inStreamMedia, TrueLens and Yieldbot. She previously worked for Shott Capital Management, Bank of America, BancBoston Ventures, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and Bank of Boston. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wellesley College.

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  • WK
    Hannah Hoag

    Freelance science journalist and co-founder, Bracing for Impact

    Hannah Hoag is an award-winning science journalist who covers people, the planet, and the ways they interact. She has written extensively about global climate change and how it affects food, health, biodiversity, and cultural traditions. Her stories have been published in Nature, Discover, Wired, New Scientist, NationalGeographic.com, Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, and others. She contributed to The Science Writers' Handbook and served as deputy editor for the book's website, and is a co-founder of Bracing for Impact, a climate change reporting project.

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  • WK
    Mary Hoff

    Editor in chief, Ensia

    Mary Hoff: Mary Hoff is editor in chief of Ensia, a nonprofit online and print magazine that cuts across disciplines, ideologies, sectors and continents to connect global leaders and others with ideas, information and inspiration they can use to create sustainable solutions to complex environmental challenges. An award-winning science communicator and longtime NASW member, she has more than two decades’ experience helping to improve understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the environment and natural resources through print and online media.

    Pitch Guidelines

    Ensia is a media platform that's out to change the world. Cutting across disciplines, ideologies, sectors and continents, our print and online magazines and event series connect global leaders with new information, new inspiration and new tools they can use to create sustainable solutions to complex environmental challenges.

    Ensia accepts submissions for innovative articles, feature stories, videos, photo galleries and infographics that provide solution-focused perspectives on emerging environmental challenges, as well as novel ways of looking at longstanding issues.

    What are we looking for?

    The best way to get a feel for what we publish is to read ensia.com or past issues of Ensia and Momentum, Ensia’s predecessor. Although we appreciate a wide variety of approaches and welcome proposals that don't fit this model, in general, we are looking for stories that do at least some of the following:
    • focus broadly (not just science and policy, but also economics, design, etc.) on the environment and sustainability
    • tell compelling stories with vivid characters and universally useful messages
    • focus on solutions rather than on the same old problems
    • feature new voices, new issues, new ideas, new information, new inspiration
    • challenge conventional ways of thinking about the environment
    • include a human dimension
    • cut across disciplines, sectors, political
    persuasions and continents
    • interest people who can change the world
    • clarify the relationship between the environment
    and other issues

    Some models include National Geographic, Wired, OnEarth and Conservation. Or, if we’re really hitting our mark, the Economist meets Fast Co. for the environment.

    Please do not send general queries about story ideas. Your pitch should clearly describe the piece you envision producing and clearly demonstrate how it will be innovative, solution-oriented and unlike anything we’ve seen or are likely to see anywhere else. Check the archives to see topics we’ve already covered. When possible include a working title and enough of a lede and body that we can get a good sense of your writing style. A paragraph or two is fine; please do not exceed a page. Submit written pitches as part of your email message, not as an attachment. Include links to work samples if you have not written for us before.

    Features
    Generally feature stories appearing online are roughly 1,500 words, and up to 2,500 words in print.

    Articles
    Generally articles are around 700–750 words, though some are longer.

    Who is our audience?
    Decision makers and change agents around the world, including members of the environmental community (leaders in academia, NGOs, government agencies, business, industry and the media) and the educated public (students, concerned citizens, etc.). Most readers will have a basic interest in and understanding of environmental topics, but we shouldn’t assume they know about the complexities of each issue.

    Where should submissions be sent?
    Send pitches for features and articles to david@ensia.com

    For more about photo, video and infographic submissions please see our Multimedia Submissions Guidelines at ensia.com/contact.

    We try to respond to every query within a month, but because we receive many pitches and are a small staff we sometimes do not meet this goal. Thanks for your patience.

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  • WK
    Robert Lee Hotz

    Science writer, Wall Street Journal

    Robert Lee Hotz covers science and technology for The Wall Street Journal. He is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and president of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which funds independent journalism projects around the world. He is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers. Mr. Hotz was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1986 and a finalist again in 2004. Mr. Hotz shared in the Los Angeles Times’ 1995 Pulitzer Prize for articles about the Northridge earthquake. He also has received awards from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of The AAAS.

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  • WK
    Mara Hvistendahl

    Contributing correspondent, Science, and founding member, Deca

    Mara Hvistendahl is a founding member of the writers' cooperative Deca. A contributing correspondent at Science, she also writes for the New York Times, Matter, the Atlantic, Popular Science, and other publications. Her 2011 book Unnatural Selection, on prenatal sex selection and the whopping gender imbalance it has produced in Asia, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. For eight years, she covered science, politics, and other issues from China. She now lives in Minneapolis.

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