[Sci-tech-public] New director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships

[David Mindell]

Hello,

As director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, it gives me
great pleasure to announce the new director of the Knight Science Journalism
Fellowships, Philip Hilts. More detail is provided below, but let me say
that Philip impressed us all with his intellect, the range and depth of his
journalistic commitments, and his vision for the future of the program. We
are tremendously excited to have Philip join our community and continue the
wonderful work of Boyce Rensberger, who retires this summer, and Victor
McElheny in building up the Knight fellowship program, which will celebrate
its twenty-fifth anniversary next month. 

Thanks to Dean Deborah Fitzgerald for chairing the search committee and
running a broad and timely search. Thanks also to the other members of the
committee - Kathy Boisvert (Knight fellows), Rob Kanigel (MIT, Science
Writing), Penny Chisholm (MIT, Civil and Environmental Engineering), Paul
Schechter (MIT, Physics), Robert Weinberg (MIT Cancer Center, Whitehead
Institute), Christine Russell (Harvard, Belfer Center), and Deborah Blum
(University of Wisconsin, School of Journalism). 

Congratulations again to Philip and best wishes to Boyce on his upcoming
retirement. 

 

David Mindell

Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society

Dibner Professor

of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing

Professor of Engineering Systems

Housemaster, MIT Edgerton House

 

 

 

Philip Hilts named new Director 
of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships

 

         

Philip J. Hilts, photograph by Marc Jones 

 

Philip J. Hilts, the author of six books, and a prize-winning health and
science reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post, has been
named the third director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships. He
will succeed Boyce Rensberger, who retires this summer after ten years in
the job.

          Hilts, whose journalism career began in 1968, was the Times
reporter who broke the story of the tobacco industry's 40-year coverup of
its own research showing that tobacco was harmful and addictive.  His most
recent book, Rx for Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health
Challenge, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology
and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. 

          A long-time teacher of science journalism at Boston University,
Hilts will also take over Rensberger's teaching role in MIT's Graduate
Program in Science Writing.

Hilts said he was thrilled to have the chance to lead the program. 

"This is the best program of its kind anywhere, and has for decades been the
source of enthusiasm and high standards that science journalists look to,"
he said. "Now the program has even more to do, helping journalists launch
themselves into the electronic future, again with enthusiasm while
maintaining high standards. What a great opportunity!

"I'm delighted that Phil Hilts will be coming to MIT and using his
extraordinary experience and energy to guide the advancement of the science
journalists who come here each year," said Deborah Fitzgerald, who chaired
the search committee. "The Fellowships is a major part of MIT's effort to
improve the public understanding of science and technology, and I'm
confident that Phil will lead the program to new heights." 

Rensberger echoed Fitzgerald's sentiments.

"This is an excellent choice," he said. "Phil and I worked together for
about five years at the Washington Post, and I developed enormous respect
for his scientific interests and investigative acumen."

Hilts has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, twice a fellow at the
Harvard School of Public Health, and serves as a commentator on health and
science issues for National Public Radio. 
     The Knight Science Journalism Fellowships, which celebrates its 25th
anniversary in February, is the nation's leading program for advanced
education in science for mid-career journalists.  Funded chiefly by an
endowment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Fellowships
is a component of the Science, Technology and Society Program in the School
of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. It began in 1983 as the Vannevar
Bush Fellowships in the Public Understanding of Technology and Science,
founded by Victor K. McElheny, who retired in 1998.

 

For more information, visit 
http://web.mit.edu/knight-science/

 

 

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