Our Gang


Bruce V. Lewenstein, associate professor of communications and of science and technology studies at Cornell, is working with Professor Sheila Jasanoff, chair of the department of science and technology studies, in gathering and cataloging text, graphics, cartoons, videotapes and other items related to DNA fingerprinting evidence introduced at the trial of O.J. Simpson. The archives, supported by a $17,000 National Science Foundation grant, is intended for the use of scholars in science communications and history.

Joan Frisch has retired from media relations at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and settled into a four-bedroom house at 20 Foster Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365. Tel: 360-437-0401.

David H. Rhinelander has retired from The Hartford Courant after 32 years as a reporter and editorial writer. Home address: 36 Boston Hill Road, Andover, CT 06232.

Ob.Gyn. News editor Catherine Cooper Nellist accepted the 1995 Profiles in Progress Award for newspaper reporting from the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month organization.

Janice Hopkins Tanne won her second Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York for her article, "Washington to New York: Drop Dead" about health reform in New York Magazine. Janice's first Front page Award, in 1989, was for an article (also in New York) alerting readers to hepatitis B. Janice, a free lance, is also President of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. In that role, in September, she addressed the Manchester (UK) "Conference on IPR [Intellectual Property Rights], the Infobahn, and the Labour Movement" sponsored by the National Union of Journalists of the U.K. and the Labour Telematics Center. Janice spoke about the electronic rights wars in North America. In October, Janice addressed the Garden Writers Association of America convention in San Antonio, where she provided practical advice on "Do's and Don't's of Writers' Contracts."

"Talk of the Nation: Science Friday's" Karen Hopkin unveiled her "Studmuffins of Science" calendar on October 17 at the New York Academy of Sciences. Eight of the 12 hyped hunks were in attendance (Dr. January and Drs. April through October), as were camera crews from local news programs and "Hard Copy." Karen's mother was the first to ask all the studs to sign her calendar. "I said, 'Mom, I got a Ph.D. and you didn't get this excited,'" said Karen. [See Karen's own story.]

Dorothy P. Smith, who served as associate editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has left that journal because the journal has left the Academy. In late October she and 27 other members of the PNAS staff were notified that the journal was being out-sourced, so to speak-contracted out to Cadmus Publishers. Those affected were invited to re-apply for similar positions, but Dorothy has opted to retire.

Julie Ann Miller is leaving the editor's chair at BioScience and returning to Science News as editor.

Deborah Blum has taken a three-month leave from the Sacramento Bee to work on a book for Viking exploring the physiological differences between the sexes, particularly in the human species.

Larry Thompson has been hired as FDA Commissioner David Kessler's speech writer.

Freelance environmental science writer Rebecca Renner is now a contributing editor for Environmental Science and Technology magazine. Based in Pennsylvania, she will focus on remediation and risk assessment, and will keep track of states' initiatives.

Heather Rock Woods has left the Tri-Valley Herald to become the neighborhood news and medical/science reporter for the Palo Alto Weekly. She also gets a ten-minute bicycle commute instead of a two-hour round-trip drive.

Both Jane Stevens and Keay Davidson got assignments from National Geographic. Jane spent the summer researching her story from an icebreaker in the Antarctic winter pack ice. And Keay's story on inner-earth research comes out in January.

Earl Ubell has left WCBS-TV and is now health editor for Parade magazine at 114 W. 27th St., New York, NY.

Freelance medical writer and editor Bill Kitay has moved his office after 31 years in New York to 2905 Brookmere Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22901. His new phone number is 804-974-7451.

Bernice Wuethrich, formerly a free-lance writer in Washington, DC, is now writing and editing museum exhibits at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Cheryl Platzman Weinstock says she's back from her "exile" as a mother-in-waiting, according to Diane McGurgan. Her new son Hank is helping Cheryl with office work in reparation for her lost time, or so it is reported. In June, Cheryl won second and third place awards from the Press Club of Long Island for her stories on Alzheimer's and AIDS.

Victor Cohn has received the John Benjamin Nichols Award from the Medical Society of the District of Columbia "in recognition of outstanding contributions toward improving the health of the community," or possibly-as Cohn says-"for getting one's byline in the paper for a long time."

Lisa Busch is the executive producer of a five-part radio series called Alaskan Women in Science. It will be distributed as an hour-long program and five 15-minute segments over public radio in March, in time for Women's History Month. The series was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It profiles five women scientists in a wide variety of disciplines. The series will also be distributed, along with a curriculum guide on women in science, to all the school districts in Alaska.

Richard A. Kerr has received the American Geological Institute's Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Public Understanding of Geology. Kerr is senior writer at Science magazine and serves on the editorial board of AGI's monthly earth-science magazine, Geotimes.

Bill Schulz left the Office of Public Affairs at the Smithsonian to become associate editor (ACS News Editor, to be exact) at Chemical & Engineering News. His new number: (202)872-4474.

Larry Wood was the main speaker at a ceremony in the Seattle Center honoring her as a distinguished alumna of her Seattle high school.

Cindy Lollar, senior writer in the AAAS Office of Communications, has taken over compiling news for this column. Contact her with future updates at 1333 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20005- 7088. Ph: 202-326-7088;fx: 202-789-0455; email: clollar@aaas.org;

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