By the early 2000s, Annalee Newitz says she was at a “crossroads” in her career. Her syndicated tech-culture column Techsploitation was an early success, but her longing to branch out led her to the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. KSJ “was an incredible help,” said Newitz. “I was able to re-educate myself with a lot of biology and […]
JOHN MUCHANGI, ’13
John Muchangi began his journalism career in 2005 at The People Daily newspaper in Kenya — first as a science features writer, and later as the publication’s science editor. In 2007 he moved to The Star, a startup newspaper based in the capital city Nairobi, where he currently serves as science editor. John was awarded […]
JASON PALMER, ’14
Jason Palmer says he became interested in science journalism after years as an ultrafast laser scientist at Lawrence Livermore Lab in the U.S. and Imperial College in Britain — a time that instilled in him, as he describes it, a “fear of dark laboratories.” As an antidote, he began freelance writing while doing postdoctoral work […]
IBBY CAPUTO, ’15
Ibby Caputo, a 2014-2015 MIT-Knight Science Journalism Fellow, is a writer and journalist based in Boston. Before her fellowship, Ibby covered health care, transportation and breaking news as a reporter for WGBH’s Boston Public Radio and WGBH TV. Ibby credits her nine months in the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship with giving her the space and […]
MARCIA BARTUSIAK, ’95
Combining her skills as a journalist with an advanced degree in physics, Marcia Bartusiak has been covering the fields of astronomy and physics for nearly four decades. Already an accomplished author of two award-winning books by the early 1990’s, Marcia took time out in 1994 and 1995 to join the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program […]
[Video] This Is Your Brain on Space
[Director’s Introduction—In April 2015, Olga Dobrovidova, KSJ ‘15, a Moscow-based freelance science journalist, organized the first-ever Knight Science Journalism World Space Party as part of the annual worldwide celebration of Yuri’s Night, the anniversary of the historic first manned space mission by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
The KSJ event at MIT’s Stratton Student Center drew attendees from universities around Boston and featured a space-themed quiz, a talk on the effects of zero gravity on brain function by Columbia University-based neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin, and a rocking disco dance DJ’d by the very same Nikolay Kukushkin…