Stevens Institute of Technology created the Center for Science Writings in 2005 to draw attention to writings, from books to blogs, that shape public perceptions of science. Stevens hired the science journalist John Horgan to serve as the first Director of the Center. The Center, which is part of the College of Arts & Letters, is fulfilling its missions in the following ways:
- The Center sponsors public events at which prominent writers–including journalists, scientists, engineers, philosophers and others–visit Stevens to discuss science-related issues. The Center’s website publicizes these events and provides supplementary materials and a forum for discussion.
- The CSW website publishes a blog in which John Horgan comments on scientific issues addressed in CSW events and in the media. Visitors’ comments are welcome.
- The Center has compiled and published on its website “The Stevens Seventy Greatest Science Books,” which stand out because of their subject matter, rhetorical style and impact on science and the rest of culture.
- The Center staff has created writing-intensive undergraduate courses-such as “Introduction to Journalism”, “War and Human Nature”, and “Science and the Press”-that will eventually count toward a minor in Science Writings.
- In 2007, the Center created the Green Book Award, given each year to a book that addresses environmental issues in a compelling way.
The CSW Staff
John Horgan, Director
John Horgan, who came to Stevens in 2005, is an author and freelance writer who has been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, TIME, Discover, London Times and other publications around the world. Horgan holds a BA in English from Columbia University’s School of General Studies and an MS from Columbia’s School of Journalism. He was a senior writer for Scientific American from 1986 to 1997. His honors and awards include the 2005 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowship in Science and Religion; the Science Journalism Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992 and 1994); and the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Award (1993). His writings have been featured in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
For more information, please visit John’s personal website.
Lisa Dolling, Co-Director
In addition to being Co-Director of the Center for Science Writings, Lisa Dolling is dean of the Stevens College of Arts & Letters and associate professor in and director of the philosophy department. She holds a BA in philosophy, with minors in English and French literature, from Manhattanville College. She has since earned a certificate of completion cum laude from the Higher Institute of Philosophy in Louvain, Belgium and an MA in Philosophy from Fordham University. She went on to receive her PhD in Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her primary specialty is the philosophy of science, but her interests include hermeneutics, aesthetics, feminism, women philosophers, the philosophy of literature, and the philosophy of education. She edited the collection “The Tests of Time: Readings in the Development of Physical Theory”, and has published articles on Hermeneutics, Epistemology, and the work of several philosophers. Prior to coming to Stevens, Professor Dolling was a member of the philosophy department at St. John’s University, where she also worked as the Executive Director of the University Honors Program, Director of the Women’s Studies Program, and Coordinator of the Science and Religion project.
For more information, please visit Professor Dolling’s page on the philosophy department site.
Friends of the CSW
The Friends of the Center for Science Writings are writers who share the Center’s interest in media depictions of science. The Friends are:
- Natalie Angier, author, columnist, New York Times
- Michael Brooks, author, writer/editor, New Scientist
- Sharon Begley, author, columnist, Newsweek
- David Berreby, author, freelance journalist
- Dan Fagin, author, freelance journalist, professor, NYU
- Mark Fischetti, author, senior editor, Scientific American
- Fred Guterl, senior editor, Newsweek
- Steve Hall, author, freelance journalist
- Jim Holt, freelance journalist
- George Johnson, author, science reporter, New York Times
- Rob Kunzig, senior editor, National Geographic
- David Lefer, author, freelance journalist
- Mike Lemonick, author, freelance journalist
- Chris Mooney, author, freelance journalist
- Oliver Morton, author, freelance journalist
- Dennis Overbye, author, reporter, New York Times
- Corey Powell, author, executive editor, Discover Magazine
- Martin Redfern, correspondent, BBC
- John Rennie, author, freelance journalist
- Andrew Revkin, author, environment and science reporter, New York Times
- Philip E. Ross, web editor, IEEE Spectrum
- Kirkpatrick Sale, author, freelance journalist
- Charles Seife, author, freelance journalist, professor, NYU
- Ellen Shell, author, freelance journalist, professor, Boston University
- Jamie Shreeve, author, senior editor, National Geographic
- Gary Stix, author, special projects editor, Scientific American
- John Timpane, oped editor/writer, Philadelphia Inquirer
- John Voelcker, freelance journalist
- Margaret Werthheim, author, freelance journalist
- Karen Wright, freelance journalist
- Robert Wright, author, freelance journalist, producer, Bloggingheads.tv
- Phil Yam, author, news editor, Scientific American
- Carl Zimmer, author, freelance journalist
- Glenn Zorpette, executive editor, IEEE Spectrum Magazine
Board of Advisors
The Board of Advisors of the Center for Science Writings are members of the greater Stevens community who have agreed to offer their advice and support to the developing vision of the CSW. All nine of them have distinguished themselves by their commitment and contributions to science and science communications.
Patrick A. Berzinski
Patrick A. Berzinski, NASW, PRSA, has worked in a variety of media during a career spanning more than 20 years. Since 2000, his work has been primarily in institutional communications for Stevens Institute of Technology, where he currently serves as director of university communications. He has co-chaired the board of directors of the Science Writers in New York, is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, the Public Relations Society of America, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He sits on the Higher Education Advisory Board for Kulper & Company. Berzinski’s feature articles and op-eds have appeared nationally in a broad spectrum of publications.
Jonathan Cloud
Jonathan Cloud is Entrepreneur in Residence, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, N.J. Cloud is a lifelong environmentalist, community organizer, and entrepreneur. An early pioneer in passive-solar design and construction in Canada in the 1970s and 80s, as well as an environmental community activist, he received a UN Environment Award in 1985, in recognition of his work in renewable energy, conservation, and appropriate technology. His career has spanned journalism, politics, invention, housing design and construction, database, software, and Internet development, financial services, networking, nonprofits, network marketing, and sustainable business development. He has lived in more than a dozen countries, spoken several languages, and published articles and translations. His passion, however, is human transformation and empowerment in the broadest sense. He was a longtime volunteer and IFLP Leader with Landmark Education, a university lecturer, a Millionaire Mind graduate, and the founder of a successful local business network in one of the wealthiest areas in the U.S. His current focus is facilitating the transition to a green economy.
Christopher Thayer Cory
Christopher Cory is Executive Director of Public Information at Pace University’s Office of Public Information, where he has served since 2002. For the past dozen years, he has engaged in a variety of volunteer collaborations with the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. He previously served as Director of College Relations at Connecticut College, as Director of Editorial Services at Altria, and as Manager of Editorial Services at the Philip Morris Management Corporation. He served for 10 years as Boston Bureau Chief and Associate Editor at Time Magazine. Cory is a graduate of Yale University, a board member of the Choral Society of the Hamptons and an advisory board member to the Greenwich Village Singers.
S. Vincent Grasso
Dr. S. Vincent Grasso, D.O., trained as a surgeon at Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Manhattan Program and at Yale University. His post doctoral activities at Yale involved developing advanced, minimally invasive surgical techniques outside the traditional operating room. While at Yale, he joined the NASA-Yale Commercial Space Center for Medical Informatics and Technology Applications (CSCMITA) as a NASA Program Manager to perform research within the discipline of Medical Informatics. At CSCMITA, he created the concept of Extreme Telemedicine and led a medical research expedition to Mount Everest. An advisor to several healthcare-related programs at Stevens, his current R&D efforts involve the intersection between the clinical, technical, and financial aspects of healthcare delivery. He has performed and taught surgery and lectured internationally. His not-for-profit company AYUDAMOS Inc. has been instrumental in delivering care worldwide since 1991. He currently serves as Executive Vice President for Medical Informatics with the LGS Group Inc.
Barrett Hazeltine
Barrett Hazeltine is Professor Emeritus of Engineering at Brown University and a member of the Board of Trustees at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He holds a BSE and an MSE from Princeton University and a PhD from the University of Michigan, and has taught or worked in over a dozen countries. Among his many awards and honors are two Fulbright lectureships.
Malcolm R. Kahn
Malcolm R. Kahn is Vice President for Enterprise Development & Licensing at Stevens. Kahn has been a serial entrepreneur of technology-based companies for more than 25 years, with extensive experience in the fields of analytical and scientific instrumentation, membrane filtration, lab-on-chip technologies, and first-hand knowledge of the medical diagnostics, clean-tech, telecommunications, analytical instrument and biopharmaceutical markets. Kahn began his career at Pfizer in their Medical Diagnostics Division and then at Millipore before moving into start-ups. His initial career path was in finance before becoming involved in marketing, and ultimately in general management. He also sits on the boards of several start-up companies in the fields of Raman Spectroscopy, carbon nanotubes, sequencing using quantum-controlled femto-second lasers and mass spectrometers, and a predictive software company for analyzing water contamination.
Steve Marano
Steve Marano serves as director of Strategic Alliances and Business Development at Panasonic of North America. He is an accomplished business development and financial management professional with proven hands-on experience at structuring, negotiating, and managing new telecommunications, consumer electronics, information technology and Internet service ventures, in both start-up and corporate settings. Marano brings significant joint venture and corporate development accomplishments, and has been adept at establishing effective strategic alliances and partnerships. In addition to Panasonic, he has occupied positions of leadership with The Verticom Group, Physicians’ Telecom and AT&T/Lucent. Marano received his MBA from Wharton School of Business, where he graduated with Distinguished Honors.
Richard A. McCormack
Richard McCormack is President of RAMCO Consulting Company, a follow-on organization to RAMCO Inc., an energy and management-consulting firm headquartered in San Diego, CA, that McCormack founded in 1977 and sold to Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s National Energy Group in 2001. McCormack also serves as President of Thermal Energy Storage, which he established in 1979 to bring his patented gas-hydrate storage technology to market. He is an active alumnus of the Stevens Institute of Technology.
Richard Reeves
Richard Reeves is the author of the prize-winning trilogy on the modern Presidency: President Kennedy: Profile of Power; President Nixon: Alone in the White House; President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination. He is senior lecturer at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California. His next book, A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford, scheduled for publication in 2007, includes experiments done at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He graduated from Stevens in 1960.
