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New master's program in science writing now accepting applicants

MIT's new Graduate Program in Science Writing is now accepting applications for its first class entering in September 2002. The program leads to a master of science degree and normally consists of one year of coursework, a thesis and an internship.

The need for science writers has never been greater. Modern technological society leaves a widening gap between citizens and the wielders of scientific expertise. The values and practices of science and technology pervade modern life; science writers probe and knowledgeably question them.

The graduate program offers access to MIT resources including its hundreds of science and engineering laboratories, as well as key programs in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Among these is the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program, the Comparative Media Studies program and the Science, Technology and Society program.

Students will work in small settings with core faculty from the program in Writing and Huamnistic Studies including lecturer B.D. Colen, Pulitzer Prize-winning medical writer and science editor; Professor Robert Kanigel, interim head of the Writing Program, author of "The Man Who Knew Infinity" and "Apprentice to Genius" and recipient of the Grady-Stack award for science writing; Adjunct Professor Alan Lightman, author of "Einstein's Dreams," "Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists," as well as essays and short fiction; Kenneth Manning, the Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and History Of Science, author of "Black Apollo of Science" and finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; Professor James Paradis, Writing Program head, historian of Victorian culture and Darwinism, and author of "T.H. Huxley: Man's Place in Nature"; and Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program, formerly of The New York Times and the Washington Post, and author of "Life Itself" and other books on science.

Applications for the Graduate Program in Science Writing will be accepted until Feb. 15; the financial aid deadline is Jan. 15. For more information or an application, visit the program office in Room 14N-108, call x3-6668, e-mail sciwrite-www@mit.edu, or see the program's web site.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 24, 2001.

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