USA’s TOP SCIENCE WRITERS TO MEET AT UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

Editor’s note: The CASW web site is www.casw.org

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Exactly two years from now, the University of Arkansas and the city of Fayetteville will be crawling with more than 100 of the nation’s top science writers.

The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) has accepted the invitation to hold its 42nd annual meeting at the University of Arkansas on Nov. 7-10, 2004, according to Ben Patrusky, CASW executive director.

"We are delighted that CASW is coming, and we are committed to working with them to present one of the most stimulating conferences the organization has ever had," said UA Chancellor John A. White, who will present welcoming remarks.

"We know this conference will provide an opportunity for us to showcase the University’s research achievements and the compelling qualities of Northwest Arkansas for the best science writers in America," he added. "The effects of the conference will last for years, advancing the academic reputation of the University, with related implications for the economic development of our region and state."

This year’s CASW conference, called the "New Horizons in Science Briefing," was held in late October at Washington University in St. Louis. David W. Stahle, professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas, was one of the featured scientists, speaking on "Rings of Truth: Ancient Trees, the Environment, and Human Affairs."

Next year’s conference will be held at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, with the University of Tennessee as a co-sponsor.

CASW is composed of science writers from the national news media, scientific agencies and organizations, and research universities.

The conference features outstanding scientists, not only from the host organization, but also from the nation and world who can present information about new research programs that are not yet on the front page. These briefings give science writers an opportunity to explore emerging lines of investigation before they make it into the public domain.

The University was notified of its successful bid in a letter from Patrusky. In it, he expressed the "enthusiastic" acceptance of the CASW board for coming to Fayetteville.

"Your bid proved quite persuasive," Patrusky wrote Roger L. Williams, associate vice chancellor of university relations. "There is little doubt that the University of Arkansas is bursting with terrific scientific/technological talent and first-rate stories, thus making your institution a choice venue for the briefing.let me assure you, based on my long years of organizing these briefings, that there is probably no more effective means of alerting the national (and world) press—and through them the public—of Arkansas’s scientific prowess."

Members of the CASW board of directors include: Jerry Bishop, Wall Street Journal; Robert Murray, Howard University; Paul Raeburn, Business Week; Christine Russell, freelance; Philip Boffey, New York Times; Barbara Culliton, Genome News Network/Celera Genomics; James Detjen, Michigan State University; Arthur Fisher, Popular Science; Anne Gudenkauf, National Public Radio; Roald Hoffman, Cornell University; Fred Jerome, Gene Media Forum; Warren Leary, New York Times; Leon Lederman, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; Polly Matzinger, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH; David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle; Charles Petit, U.S. News & World Report; Joanne Rodgers, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; Carole Rogers, University of Maryland; Albert Rosenfeld, freelance and Tom Siegfried, Dallas Morning News.

The University of Arkansas has been an active participant in CASW since 1998, with science and research communications officers Melissa Blouin, Allison Hogge and Carolyne Garcia attending all meetings.