| Spring 2007 |
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| InsideOut | A Speaker Series |
"Crossing Media Platforms" is the theme of this semester's "Inside Out" speaker series, sponsored by NYU Journalism's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP). Our guests will dissect and defend their best work in a casual setting that encourages probing questions. As usual, Robert Lee Hotz of the Los Angeles Times, a distinguished writer in residence in the journalism department, will help facilitate the discussions.
All three events will be in the fifth floor atrium of 10 Washington Place, at 6 p.m.
All journalism students and faculty are welcome - refreshments provided! Please join us.
Here is this semester’s lineup:
- February 27: Can two prominent magazine journalists find happiness blogging? Ask John Rennie of Scientific American and Carl Zimmer of The Loom.
- March 27: How do you translate a major newspaper project to television? Andrew Revkin of The New York Times explains.
- April 17: How does an award-winning radio reporter get accolades for web work, too? Find out from Dan Grossman.
About the Speakers:
Carl Zimmer is a blogger, magazine writer and author of five books about science. His first book, At the Water’s Edge (1999) followed scientists as they tackled two of the most intriguing evolutionary puzzles of all: how fish walked ashore, and how whales returned to the sea. It was followed in 2000 by Parasite Rex, which explores the bizarre world of nature’s most successful life forms. In 2001 he published Evolution: The Triumph of An Idea, the companion volume to a PBS television series. It was named one of the best science books of the year by both Discover and New Scientist. Soul Made Flesh, published in 2004, chronicled the dawn of neurology in the 1600s. It was named one of the 100 notable books of 2004 by The New York Times Book Review. His latest book is Smithsonian Guide to Human Evolution, published in November 2005 by Smithsonian Books. He is now writing a book about E. coli and the meaning of life. Zimmer writes regularly about science for The New York Times, as well as for magazines including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Science, Newsweek, Natural History, and Discover, where he is a contributing editor. His honors include the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2004 Science Journalism Award and the Everett Clark Award for science writing.
John Rennie is only the seventh editor in chief in the nearly 155-year history of Scientific American magazine. He joined the staff of Scientific American as a member of the Board of Editors in 1989, having previously worked as a science writer covering biology, technology and medicine for a variety of publications. He helped to plan and edit several of Scientific American's distinguished single-topic issues, including Mind and Brain (September 1992, the best selling special issue in SA’s history). Appointed editor-in-chief in 1994, Rennie has overseen many single-topic issues, including What You Need to Know About Cancer (September 1996), which won a National Magazine Award for editorial excellence in the Single-Topic Issue category. Rennie was born in 1959 outside Boston. He received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Yale University in 1981, after which he worked for several years in a laboratory at Harvard Medical School before embarking on his career as a science writer. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, Longevity and other publications. For several years, Rennie also worked by night as a sketch and improvisational comedian in New York, Boston and college venues.
Andrew Revkin, the environment reporter at The New York Times, is prize-winning journalist and author. He joined the Times in 1995, and has since mainly covered environmental issues in their social and political context, with a special emphasis on global climate change. Before joining the paper, Revkin spent five years writing books. His first, The Burning Season (1990), chronicles the life of Chico Mendes, the slain Amazon rain forest activist. The book was the basis for the HBO film of the same name. He also wrote Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast (1992). The book was the companion volume to the first museum exhibition on climate change, created by the American Museum of Natural History. Revkin was a senior editor at Discover, a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, and a senior writer at Science Digest. He has written for The New Yorker, Conde Nast Traveler, and other magazines. His awards include the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award. A songwriter and guitarist, Revkin occasionally writes about pop music, and a 1997 Times profile of a heavy-metal singer was the basis for the 2001 movie Rock Star. He has a biology degree from Brown University and a masters in journalism from Columbia.
Dan Grossman has been a print journalist and radio producer for 20 years. He is also the co-author of the Scientists' Guide to Talking With Media (2006). Grossman has produced radio stories and documentaries on science and the environment for National Public Radio's Living on Earth and Weekend Edition; Public Radio International's international affairs show, The World; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Germany's Deutsche Welle radio; the BBC; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; the documentary show Soundprint and Radio Netherlands. Grossman has written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Discover, Audubon and Scientific American. His awards include a 2002 George Foster Peabody Award, the highest honor in broadcast journalism; the 2003 Science Journalism award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the leading science journalism award, and the 2004 Media Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He has also twice won first prize in the category of in-depth radio reporting in the Society of Environmental Journalist's annual awards.
