International Program Fund sends science writers to WCSJ2019
Florencia Ballarino, Will Beaton, Barbara Fraser, Geoffrey Giller, Kelso Harper, Kendall Powell, Irene Rodríguez, John Wendle, Carolyn Wilke (from top left to bottom right).
Congratulations, WCSJ2019 Travel Fellows!
Among the 100 recipients from 53 countries who won travel fellowships to attend WCSJ2019, the 11th World Conference of Science Journalists, was a group of travel fellows supported by funds from the 10th WCSJ in 2017.
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and National Association of Science Writers, co-organizers of WCSJ2017, created an International Program Fund with proceeds from the conference. Nine of the fellowships are IPF-funded and honor longtime San Francisco Chronicle science reporter and CASW Fellow David Perlman.
Cheers to the Perlman travel fellows:
- Florencia Ballarino (@florballarino), PERFIL, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Will Beaton (Sandbagger News), Colorado State University graduate student from Minneapolis, MN
- Barbara Fraser (@barbara_fraser), US independent journalist based in Lima, Peru
- Geoffrey Giller (@geoffreygiller), US freelance science writer based in Berlin, Germany
- Kelso Harper, multimedia journalist, Scientific American, New York, NY
- Kendall Powell (@kendallsciwrite), freelance science writer, Lafayette, CO
- Irene Rodríguez (@irerodsa), science and health journalist, La Nación, San José, Costa Rica
- John Wendle (@johnwendle), US independent journalist based in Dakar, Senegal
- Carolyn Wilke (@carolynmwilke), freelance writer, Chicago, IL
Freelance writer Paul Nicolaus (right) of Park Falls, WI received the Laura Van Dam fellowship, funded by NASW and awarded in memory of past President Laura Van Dam, who died in 2006. Laura was a strong supporter of NASW’s commitment to international science writing.
The goal of these fellowships is to encourage continued American participation in the world community and to enable writers to pursue story opportunities abroad at a time when travel budgets are tight for many. Science writers from the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean were eligible for this subset of the WCSJ2019 travel fellowships. All fellowships are administered and selected by the WCSJ2019 organizers.
Colombian delegation bid for WCSJ2021
The IPF is also providing travel support to the delegation of science journalists who will present their bid in Lausanne to host WCSJ2021 in Colombia. Ximena Serrano Gil of Medellín is president of the Colombian Association of Science Journalism (ACPC), Andrew Wight is an Australian scientific journalist who lives in Medellín and covers how science and technology is transforming the Global South, and Mara Brugés is director of science communication in the department of research and innovation at the University of Rosario in Bogotá.
“We appreciate the support so that delegations from developing economies such as ours can travel to Lausanne to present our offer and fulfill our dream of carrying out in Colombia a World Conference of Science Journalists in Latin America, where biodiversity and multiculturalism will be the protagonists,” Serrano said. CASW Executive Director Rosalind Reid added that CASW and NASW hope support from the IPF will boost the chances that a future World Conference can be held in the developing world.
