Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

September-October 2004 • Vol. 30, No. 5

National Science Writers to Meet at U of A

Two Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College scientists will be featured at the 42nd annual meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) to be held Nov. 7-10, 2004, at the University of Arkansas Center for Continuing Education.

Fred Stephen, entomology and Jean-Francois Meullenet, food science, and seven other UA researchers will give presentations to CASW members, who include science writers from the national news media, scientific agencies and organizations, and research universities.

Other UA researchers on the program are Brent Smith, sociology; Donald Judges, law; Steve Stephenson, biological sciences; Fred Spiegel, biological sciences; Peter Ungar, anthropology; Laurent Bellaiche, physics; and Jerry Havens, chemical engineering. In addition, there will be researchers from the Department of Defense, the University of California Berkeley, the National Institutes of Health, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute.

"We know this conference will provide an opportunity for us to showcase the University's research achievements and the compelling qualities of Northwest Arkansas for the best science writers in America," said UA Chancellor John A. White. "The effects of the conference will last for years, advancing the academic reputation of the university, with related implications for the economic development of our region and state."

The conference features outstanding scientists, not only from the host institution but also from the nation and world, who can present information about new research programs that are not yet on the front page. These briefings give science writers an opportunity to explore emerging lines of scientific research before they make it into the public domain.

Ben Patrusky, CASW executive director, said, "There is little doubt that the University of Arkansas is bursting with terrific scientific/technological talent and first-rate stories, thus making your institution a choice venue for the briefing … let me assure you, based on my long years of organizing these briefings, that there is probably no more effective means of alerting the national (and world) press-and through them the public-of Arkansas' scientific prowess."

Members of the CASW board of directors include: Jerry Bishop, Wall Street Journal; Robert Murray, Howard University; Paul Raeburn, freelance; Christine Russell, freelance; Philip Boffey, New York Times; Lewis Cope, freelance; Barbara Culliton, Genome News Network/Celera Genomics; Arthur Fisher, Popular Science; Roald Hoffman, Cornell University; Fred Jerome, Gene Media Forum; Warren Leary, New York Times; Leon Lederman, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; Polly Matzinger, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH; David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle; Charles Petit, U.S. News & World Report; Joanne Rodgers, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; Carole Rogers, University of Maryland; Albert Rosenfeld, freelance; and Tom Siegfried, Dallas Morning News.