New Members

The following new members have joined the ABSW. Compiled by Kat Arney, Vice-chair.

Richard Hurley British Medical Journal
Full member

Richard's background is in the physical sciences, but he is now technical editor for the British Medical Journal and the Student BMJ, and is also involved in the production side of the BMJ.com website. He is news and features subeditor, also writing news, features and reviews, mostly on medical topics, and has also ventured into podcasting.

He commissions journalists to write material for the BMJ, including obituaries, book reviews, personal view articles and features. Richard has been a committee member for the European Association of Science Editors for three years, and contributes to its quarterly journal.

Figen Eker Alphagalileo Foundation
Associate member

Figen has worked as a journalist in Lyon and a science editor in London. Since moving to the UK, she has provided legal support to a finance company, and also worked as a headhunter for a leading UK recruitment firm. She currently works as news service manager for the Alphagalileo Foundation, Europe's research news service.

Kosta Stefanou Alphagalileo Foundation
Associate member

Kosta worked for 16 years for the Bulgarian Service of the BBC World Service. Before that, he was a correspondent for Bulgarian TV and radio in Poland at the time of the transition from communism to the market economy. He also covered the accession of 8 Eastern European countries to the EU in 2004.

Over the years Kosta has interviewed Lech Walesa, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Adam Michnik and even Fidel Castro. He currently works for the Alphagalileo Foundation, Europe's research news service.

Dr Lisa Jane Moore Health Communications
Full member

Lisa is an associate medical writer at a large health communications agency based in East Cheshire. She has a PhD in medical microbiology and a first class honours degree in biology, and has authored a number of scientific papers.

Dr Justine Ina Davies freelance (print)
Full member

Justine is an ex-medical doctor and university lecturer, and has carried out academic research into heart disease. In 2006 she left medicine to take a zoology degree

She recently spent four months working with the BBC advising on the medical science behind two documentaries, script writing and designing fun experiments to demonstrate science. Justine is now setting up as a freelance medical/science writer. To date, she has had a number of features and opinion pieces published in national Scottish newspapers and is writing a book on sleep

Kate Gray Medwire News/Freelance
Full member

Kate has a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a postgraduate qualification in broadcast journalism from City University. She has freelanced at the BBC radio science unit, Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 2.

Dr Catherine Whitlock Freelance
Full member

Having worked in medical research for many years, Catherine now works freelance as a science writer and communicator. Her areas of interest predominantly cover the fields of biology, health and medicine.

Recent articles have covered the 'Immunology of herbal medicines' (The Times), 'Should the MMR vaccine be compulsory?' (The Biologist) and genetic associations with obesity (The Wellcome Trust). Other projects include working with junior Cafe Scientifique to evaluate its effectiveness as an informal way of engaging young people with science.

Tamera Jones Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Associate member

Tamera is a science writer and press officer for NERC. She writes for the organisation's magazine 'Planet Earth', and its website, 'Planet Earth Online'. The website is updated daily and features news, features, blogs, opinion, podcasts and video from research funded by NERC on climate change, biodiversity loss, volcanoes, earthquakes, rainforests, oceans and poles. The content is written to appeal to a wide non-specialist audience.

She also works in NERC's press office, trying to persuade science and environment correspondents to write about the amazing science the organisation funds.