New Members

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Tracey Logan, science broadcaster and writer, worked for the BBC’s Science Radio Unit where she was best known to World Service listeners as the original voice of Go Digital (the first radio show with live studio pictures). She was also an occasional science news correspondent and presenter / producer of award-winning feature documentaries. Now freelance, Tracey – a former sound engineer – continues to turn cutting-edge science into gripping BBC radio and is taking baby-steps into the scary but exciting world of print.

Will Gater is the staff writer on the BBC’s Sky At Night Magazine. Previously he was the news editor at Astronomy Now. He also writes for the European Southern Observatory and the European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope press office, and blogs regularly about astronomy on his website.

Michael Sharpe has worked as an independent writer and researcher for the last 11 years, after spending ten years in management and technology consultancy. His writing interests include: IT and the knowledge economy; environmental issues in business; science policy; and the management of R&D. He writes for a variety of corporates, research and public sector organisations, and academic and business publishers.  Much of his work has a strong policy dimension, presenting information for and about European ICT research programmes.

Dr Michael Banks graduated in physics from Loughborough University in 2004 having spent a year at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany, where he subsequently did his PhD in experimental condensed-matter physics. After he finished his degree in 2007, he became news editor of Physics World magazine, published by the Institute of Physics.

Katrina Megget is a freelance science and medical journalist with more than three years’ experience in general news, features, sub-editing and editing for newspaper, magazine and online. A New Zealander now living in London, her work has appeared in Chemistry & Industry, PharmaTimes magazine, in-PharmaTechnologist.com, the New Zealand Herald, NZ Doctor, and leading New Zealand business magazine Unlimited. She also worked for a year and a half on New Zealand’s fourth largest daily newspaper, the Otago Daily Times and was a runner-up in The Daily Telegraph/Bayer Science Writer Award 2008.

Andrew Turley is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, where he studied chemistry, and Imperial College London, where he took the MSc course in science communication. Since October 2008, he has been a staff writer at Chemistry & Industry, where he writes news, features, etc., and edits the book reviews section. He has also worked in medical communications and event management, which, he says, "means I know all the PowerPoint shortcut keys and can say ‘impactful’ without visibly wincing."

Nina Notman is a science correspondent for Chemistry World, a monthly news magazine published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). She has written on a wide range of chemistry related topics for the smaller RSC news magazines Chemical Science, Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology since 2004. She was editor of Chemical Science for 15 months, before moving to her current role in January 2009. The chemistry-related areas that interest her most are environmental, analytical, materials and anything nano.

Kate Travis is the contributing editor for north Europe for ScienceCareers.org, the online career magazine from the publishers of the journal Science. She's also a freelance editor and writer, specializing in biomedical topics and cancer in particular. She was previously the news editor at the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and associate editor at Science News magazine. She moved to the UK from Washington, DC, in 2007. She lives in Cambridge.

Michael Hanlon is the Science Editor of the Daily Mail, the UK's biggest-selling mid-market national newspaper. He also writes for New Scientist, Standpoint, and other magazines and broadcasts regularly as a pundit for BBC national and regional radio, as well as radio stations across Europe. He also makes the occassionally television appearance. He has written five books, the latest of which—Eternity: Our Next Billion Years—was published by Macmillan in late 2008.

New Members August 2008

Ted Nield (Chair, ABSW) writes: ABSW welcomes the following new members.

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Dr Yasmin Babaie holds a doctorate in biological sciences and is a medical writer.

Kathryn Brooks writes about complementary medicine and is also Director of the Archway Clinic of Herbal Medicine.

Adam Duckett works for IChemE and has been writing for their magazine The Chemical Engineer for almost three years.

Simon Frantz works for Novel Web and is senior editor at www.nobelprize.org. He is responsible for creating new educational content around the history of the Nobel Prizes, as well as creating new interactive content around the annual prize announcements.

Dr Bryan Hatton is a freelance writer based in Cardiff. Specialising in Earth sciences and biology (the subject of his PhD), Dr Hatton is currently a presenter for Techniquest, Cardiff.

Dr Celia Hooper is an American science writer of over 20 years’ experience, who has worked for all but two of those years in the US. Her work has centred on biomedical sciences and policy, and she has lately specialised in research relevant to people with arthritis.

Dr Anastasios Koutsos works as assistant editor for a scientific publishing company and is based in London.

Keith Mansfield uses science in fiction to bring scientific ideas to children and early teens. His Johnny Mackintosh series (Quercus) begins in July 2008 delivers insights into physics, astronomy, computing and genetics. He has worked as a science editor for Oxford University Press and as computing editor for the Pearson group. In addition to print-based work and exhibitions, he also scripts shows for ITV entertainment.

Mike Nagle is a freelance science writer and web editor, specialising in healthcare, drugs, technology and chemistry. He has been short-listed for PTC New Journalist of the Year and is a winner of International Young Chemistry Writer of the Year. He has written for PhramaTimes, DrugResearcher and New Scientist.

Dr Julie Naimareza began work as a medial writer with Wellcome, and is currently working freelance under the name “Global Media” (www.globalmedia.com). Her interest is principally in science and healthcare in the developing world, but she has a keen interest in the use of images in science and healthcare training and writes for Bangladesh’s top English Language newspaper.

Dr Sarah Palmer is a freelance medical/science writer interested in health and education. She focuses mostly on developing learning and training materials for multimedia projects but also writes for print. Before going freelance she spent eight years at the Wellcome Trust.

Angela Saini works for BBC London news as a reporter but regularly freelances for New Scientist and the Nature Network website. Her real passion is science policy, defence and weapons. She holds a masters in engineering from Oxford University.

Ian Salusbury is a chemist who has followed the MSc in Science Communication at UWE. He says: “After 18 years working in academic publishing I have taken the plunge and become a freelance writer. My interests lie mainly in the physical sciences and engineering, but I have also tackled more business-focused topics.”

Dr Simon Singh holds a PhD in particle physics. He joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on such projects as Tomorrow’s World and Earth Story. He won a BAFTA for his work on a Horizon documentary on Fermat’s :Last Theorem and wrote a book on the same subject that became a no 1 non-fiction bestseller in the UK. He has lately co-authored Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial.

Dr Deborah Jane Wake is a hospital-based medical practitioner specialising in diabetes and endocrine diseases. She writes a regular column for The Scotsman and writes, presents and produces the medical podcast series Dr Pod’s Healthcast (www.drpod.co.uk). She is a member of the Association of Broadcasting Doctors and is a trained on-screen presenter with broadcast and corporate experience.

Ed Yong works for Cancer Research UK and is the writer of the blog Not Exactly Rocket Science (ScienceBlogs.com). He won the Daily Telegraph Young Science Writer Award (2007) and has freelanced for Nature, New Scientist, Nature Network, The Economist and The Daily Telegraph. He says he still finds writing about himself in the third person strange and unsettling.

Associate

Dr Ian Weatherhead is Director of UK and R&D Communications, UCB Celltech. He is editor of UCB R&D Magazine. He has worked in corporate communications and science communications roles for over 15 years with Zeneca, AstraZenca and Syngenta prior to joining UCB Celltech in 2005.

Student

Rupa Jayant Chandarana is studying Biology with Science Communication at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has had experience of radio at BBC Radio Oxford, and is a keen Indian dancer, currently working towards her gold Duke Of Edinburgh Award.

Nira Datta is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London. She is also a member of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association. She has previously worked for various media outlets in Toronto, mainly in molecular biology and international health matters. Her interests like mainly in science in the developing world.

Dr Isabel Kaufmann is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London. She also works freelance in print journalism.

Rieko Kawabata is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London. She is narrator of Science Zoo for NHK World (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).

Kate Oliver holds an MSci in Physics and is the writer of Null Hypothesis and The Cheese Grater.

Tamsin Osborne is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London. She has had five stories published on the New Scientist website.

Katrina Pavelin is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London, where she is specialising in print journalism and web publishing. She is a writer and section editor for the college magazine I, Science and Felix.

Dr Tim Sands is following the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London.

New members 2007 June

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Stephanie Tania Burchell holds an astrophysics degree from Harvard and is a former NASA press and media liaison officer. She now writes for the National Space Centre in Leicester.

Jasmine Farsarakis studied natural sciences at the University of East Anglia and is a freelance writer and editor specialising in medicine, health and biological sciences. She is currently Associate Editor of Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology

Philippa Pigache is a freelance feature writer with 30 years' experience, having written for women's magazines, the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and The Guardian – as well as ITN and BBC. She has also published four acclaimed consumer health books.

James Taylor works for Medwire News and studied the MSc in Science Communication at Imperial and spent three years as an advertising copywriter. Currently writing news, he wants to branch out into feature writing in the fields of pharmaceuticals and genetics.

Richard van Noorden is Science Correspondent at Chemistry World. He has also written for Nature, Bluesci and RSC News and lists stand-up comedy among his many interests.

Patrick Walter has a biochemistry degree and has a year's experience wirting for Chemistry & Industry writing on science topics across a wide spectrum.

Associate

Tammy Boyce is the coordinator of the Science Communication MA at the Cardiff University School of Journalism.

Student

Emily Baldwin is the editor of Prime Space, a quarterly publication of the Society for Popular Astronomy and contributes to Popular Astronomy magazine and Geoscientist. She is currently finishing a PhD in planetary science at UCL.

Joanna Katharine Hicks Carpenter holds a doctorate in chemistry and has worked as a civil servant, and editorial assistant, and a TEFL teacher. She is now studying the MSc at Imperial and is wondering how to earn a living at the end of it.

Ruth Knowles is an Imperial College London graduate, currently studying the MSc in Science Communication part-time at the University of the West of England. She is hoping to launch a career as a science writer.

Leandro Librio is a physicist and nanotechnologist now studying for the Birkbeck Diploma in Science Communication.

Victoria West is a freelance science writer and broadcaster specialising in environment and conservation.