2000 Science in Society Journalism Awards

Newspaper

Kitta MacPherson

“Food Fight — What Hath Science Wrought”

Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)

Description

Kitta MacPherson won the newspaper category with her series "Food Fight — What Hath Science Wrought?" published in the Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) as a four-part series beginning Dec. 5, 1999. Epitomizing the role of a newspaper science writer, MacPherson composed a balanced and unsensationalized primer for the lay public on the complicated topic of genetic engineering of food. She deftly examined the issues in a concise style, never writing down to her readers, and maintained an easy narrative flow. The series explored the potential benefits, risks, and scientific uncertainties on a global scale, while weaving in regional sources and examples from the scientific and farming communities.

Biography

Kitta MacPherson

Kitta MacPhersonhas been the science writer at the Star-Ledger since 1983. She is particularly interested in the ways that science affects the public. As a result, she has written about everything from West Nile virus to genetically modified food. In an award-winning series of articles, she profiled a group of cancer researchers working at the edges of science.

In her career, she has covered the breakthrough reaction in fusion power at Princeton University, witnessed the day-long jubilation experienced by Nobel Prize winners and recorded the often-tedious but all-important progress of the scientific endeavor. She has also sailed with marine biologists at Rutgers University and soared with the theoretical physicists at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. MacPherson joined the paper in 1981, covering Paterson and its environs, from its rough-and-tumble politics to some infamous criminal trials.

She lives in West Orange, N.J., with her husband, attorney Walter Lucas, and their three children. Whenever she can, she surfs off the Jersey shore.

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