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| Volume 49, Number 2, Summer 2000 |
NASW members Alexandra Witze, science writer for the Dallas Morning News, and Richard L. Hill, science editor for the Oregonian, are the recipients of the American Geophysical Union's 2000 awards for science journalism.
Witze won the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Writing (Features) for her story "Paradise Submerged," published on Aug. 12, 1999. The "paradise" of the title is the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean, which was dry land some 100 million years ago, but is now, except for a few small islands, completely submerged. The plateau was explored under the auspices of the Ocean Drilling Program, which formed the basis of Witze's story. The story is available on the web at dallasnews.com/science/70455_witzestory.html.
Hill is the first winner of AGU's new David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Writing (News) for his story "Quake Forecast Shifts to Land," published on May 4, 1999. Hill's page one story reported new research that concluded that western Oregon could be the epicenter of a "colossal" earthquake of magnitude eight or nine. Previous estimates had suggested that such a quake could occur some 30 miles offshore, causing much less potential damage. The story is available at www.oregonlive.com/news/99/05/st050408.html.
The Sullivan and Perlman Awards each consist of a plaque and $2,000. The Sullivan Award was established in 1989 in honor of its first recipient, the late Walter Sullivan, science writer of the New York Times. Eligible are stories with deadlines of more than one week. The Perlman Award is named for the science editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, who was the 1997 winner of AGU's Sustained Achievement Award in Science Writing. The Perlman Award is for stories written under deadline pressure of one week or less.
An independent committee of scientists and journalists recommends the winners to the AGU Council, whose Executive Committee makes the final decision.
(Source: AGU news release)