Retiring Council for the Advancement of Science Writing Executive Director Ben Patrusky was honored during a surprise event during ScienceWriters2013. Patrusky was hailed during a celebration at the Harn Museum of Art, at the University of Florida, and presented with a citation that acknowledged his “decades of brilliant contributions to the council, to science writing, and to the public understanding of science and technology.”
Tributes came in the form of words, music, and a new CASW fund named in his honor. Immediate Past CASW President Cristine Russell announced that friends and colleagues had already donated more than $35,000 to the Patrusky Fund to carry on his work and support an annual Patrusky Lecture — featuring a renowned senior scientist and vivid interpreter of science — delivered at the New Horizons meeting.
Ben Patrusky served as CASW executive director for 25 years (1988 to 2013) and for 30 years (1975 to 2004) he organized the annual New Horizons in Science briefings. The CASW board of directors has conferred upon him the title Executive Director Emeritus.
The festivities began to strains of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsodies on a Theme of Paganini. Emcee Rick Borchelt, a former CASW board member, said the last time he heard the work, Ben was “fooling around” with Variation 18 during a New Horizons conference. “The more you ask about Ben, the more facets — rhapsodies — he represents,” Borchelt said. “Few of us have been privileged to see all these variations and facets of Ben’s life and career.”
Inaugural Patrusky lecture
Harvard University chemist and materials scientist George M. Whitesides presented the inaugural Patrusky Lecture, titled “Simplicity, Surprise, Science,” on Nov. 3.
A video of the Patrusky Lecture 2013 can be found at casw.org and on YouTube.
For more information or to donate to the Patrusky Fund, visit casw.org/casw/announcement/patrusky-fund.
Celebrating Ben: Tributes from friends and colleagues
Alan Boyle, CASW president: To call someone a “gentleman and a scholar” is usually just a cliché, but in Ben’s case, it’s the perfect descriptive phrase. May his style, his smile, and his scientific acumen continue to inspire CASW for years and years to come.
Linda Meadows, president, Sigma Xi: Sigma Xi identified Ben as a luminary in science communication and conferred upon him the distinction of honorary member. But it is he who ennobled us. He has been a beacon of illumination to the world community, and he has held high a bright light for the public understanding of science.
Dennis Meredith, acolyte: For nearly my entire professional life, Ben has been a role model, inspiring science writer, and friend. He is the Daniel Boone of science communicators, an intrepid scout who has led generations of journalists to new vistas of delightful research. I have so deeply enjoyed and appreciated his inimitable personal warmth, humor, and wisdom.
Miles O’Brien, CASW board member: Ben has always been ahead of his time. He was succeeding as a freelance science journalist long before the rest of us were forced to join him. Smart, knowledgeable, and engaged in the niche he covers, I consider him the preeminent role model for those of us who are committed to “carrying the fire” in sharing the wonder, promise and peril of science.
Tom Siegfried, CASW treasurer: For more than three decades, Ben Patrusky has been the single most important person in science journalism. As CASW’s leader and organizer of the New Horizons symposia, Ben served as a one-man bridge between the brightest scientists at the cutting edge of research and the science journalism community. He showed us what science journalism could and should be. Because of Ben, science journalism in our era was vastly better than it otherwise would have been.
Nancy Blount, American Chemical Society: Oh the feasts you have prepared for us, Ben! Each one a careful blend of tantalizing topics, speakers who deliver new insights while whetting our appetites for more, and cutting-edge research — all steeped in your own brand of genteel hospitality and infused with a generous portion of camaraderie.
John Galbraith Simmons, friend since 1996: No one has been more dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in science writing than Ben; no one has been more congenial or, to tell the truth, more influential in pursuing that goal. Like no one else, Ben embodies science writing as a craft and culture. On a personal basis, I’ve been privileged to call Ben my friend but I would know and admire him from any station in the universe.
Additional tributes at casw.org/casw/tributes-ben-patrusky.
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