2007-2008 Knight Fellows

The 25th annual class of science journalists to study at MIT for a full academic year has been named. The group of ten, who will join the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships this August, includes five from the U.S. and one each from Australia, Canada, Spain, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates.

All are mid-career journalists who work for general interest news media to improve the public understanding of science. They will take a sabbatical year from their jobs to improve their own understanding of science by taking courses at MIT and Harvard, interviewing scientists and attending various seminars and lectures during the 2007–2008 academic year.

The new Knights are:

	Pam Belluck Pam Belluck has been the New England bureau chief of The New York Times. While Belluck has covered a variety of stories as a national correspondent for the Times for ten years, she plans now to specialize in health and public health issues and in brain science. Belluck has a degree in international relations from Princeton University. One of her articles, on fish shooting in Vermont, was chosen for the anthology Best American Sports Writing 2005.
	Catherine Clabby Catherine Clabby is a science reporter for the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. With degrees from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Iowa, Clabby has been a newspaper reporter for 20 years, specializing in science since 2001. Her investigative reporting changed how North Carolina investigates lead contamination in drinking water and led to rules requiring state psychiatric hospitals to disclose fatal medication errors to patients' families.
	Pere Estupinyà Pere Estupinyà is a science journalist from Spain. He has been the editor of Redes, one of the most influential science television programs in the Spanish language. He also writes for Spanish magazines, collaborates on radio programs, and does workshops to teach scientists journalistic skills to reach out to the public. He has degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Tarragona, and has been a lecturer in Science, Technology and Society at the Ramon Llull University.
	Jonathan Fahey Jonathan Fahey is an associate editor at Forbes magazine, covering a variety of technologies, especially those being developed for the future in automobiles and other forms of transportation. As a reporter there starting in 2000, Fahey covered nanotechnology, drug development and bioengineering. Previously, he was a reporter at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire and a financial consultant in New York. He has a degree in English from Connecticut College.
	Zarina Khan Zarina Khan covers science, medicine and the environment and is a humor columnist at Emirates Today, a two-year-old English language daily published in Dubai. Born in the U.S., Khan moved to Pakistan after high school where she went into journalism, working as an editor and writer in news magazines and at a news agency. Along the way she earned a degree from Pakistan’s Punjab University, where she studied journalism, education and English literature. Khan plans to continue covering science in the Middle East.
	John Mangels John Mangels, a newspaper reporter for 25 years, has been at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since 1992. After a stint as assistant metro editor, Mangels took the paper’s science writing job nine years ago. Since 2000 he has won 14 first- or second-place awards from journalism organizations. Cleveland’s alternative newspaper once declared Mangels “the best reason to read The Plain Dealer.” He has a degree in journalism from Auburn University.
	Esther Nakkazi Esther Nakkazi covers medical and science stories for The East African, a regional weekly newspaper in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Based in Kampala, Nakkazi has focused on the AIDS pandemic, vaccine trials and information technology, a field in which she won a major award in Africa. One of her stories revealed that AIDS drugs were languishing in government warehouses beyond their expiration dates, even as many patients went without treatment. The head of the National Medical Stores was sacked. Nakkazi has a degree from Makerere University.
	Julie Robotham Julie Robotham is medical editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, widely considered Australia’s most influential broadsheet. Born in the U.K., Robotham worked six years in other media before joining the SMH as a reporter covering computers. She became a medical writer in 2000 and medical editor in 2004. Her medical writing and editing has won several awards. She has a degree from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in English literature.
	Keith Seinfeld Keith Seinfeld is a reporter, focusing most of his time on science and the environment, and assistant news director at KPLU, the National Public Radio affiliate in Seattle, where he has worked since 1996. In 1999 he won the national Edward R. Murrow award for best documentary from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. Seinfeld has a bachelors degree in humanities from Stanford University and a masters from Stanford in education.
	Ivan Semeniuk Ivan Semeniuk is New Scientist’s U.S. bureau chief, based in Cambridge. He writes, commissions and edits articles for the U.K.-based magazine. He also produces and hosts a podcast for New Scientist. Semeniuk came to Cambridge in 2005 after six years as a columnist and producer for the Discovery Channel Canada, based in Toronto. Previously he worked at that city's famed Ontario Science Centre. He has a bachelors in physics and astronomy from the University of  Toronto and a masters in science journalism from Boston University.

           

---

The ten were chosen by a committee comprising Charles Petit, longtime science journalist and Head Tracker of the Knight Science Journalism Tracker; Carol Hills, producer of “The World,” a WGBH/BBC co-production, and former Knight Fellow; Kim Thompson, visiting associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management; and Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Fellowships.