According to Emrich, "Over the course of the Fellowship, I grew to see myself as a crucial cog in the machinery that gets science and engineering news to the public. Newspaper science/engineering has to be pretty simplified, but I relished the hard stories such as the one I wrote about spectroscopy of water, or another about how glowing chickens might be the future of cancer treatment….Almost as important, the Assistant Managing Editor threw me a funny story about the physics of Superman, which led to another about geysers of Diet coke, and culminated with a story pegged to the movie, Snakes on a Plane. They were all 'jokey' stories that brought a levity that I feel is sorely lacing from science/engineering, and allowed me to get my 'voice' into the paper."

According to Meyer, "Each story I worked on brought the surprise that people — smart, interesting, respected people — wanted to talk to me and tell me all about their work. I had the opportunity to interview the U.S. Surgeon General, Greg Louganis, and the 'Hottest Hacker on Earth.' I was invited to tour numerous research labs, and got the inside scoop on suspicions of drug research being used illegally by competitive cyclists. The simple phrase, 'I'm a reporter with The Chicago Tribune, was the best tool a science and engineering 'pickpocket' could ever have…I also learned what truly makes for an interesting story in the scope of the general public, knowledge that I find to be humbling for the scientist within me….I think this perspective will help me to be a more effective advocate of science, whether it is as a researcher or writer."

Where is he now?

Charlie finished his PhD at Berkeley in December 2006 and spent a few months backpacking through Southeast Asia, chronicling his travels on a blog and dreaming of becoming a travel writer. Since then, he's worked as an intern in the Science & Innovation Group at the British Consulate in San Francisco, where he has been involved in public policy. He's also been working as a part-time programmer for a bioprocess automation firm in San Francisco, which gives him ample opportunity for technical writing—mostly documentation and manuals. More recently, Charlie and a few of his Berkeley friends started up a company to make better enzymes for sustainable, cellulosic biofuels production.

"It's a really fun challenge to get a business funded and working, and even more so to know that if we succeed, the world will be a greener place for it," Charlie says. "I still find time to do freelance writing, because writing always was and always will be one of my great passions. My hope is that after some time spent trying to save the world, I'll find myself again riding a slow boat up the Mekong, writing about the people and the technology that keep that same world humming."
 

In W.Va, the spin on wind farms is positive (11 July)
Making shuttles safer (7 July)
Shell tells a tale of survival (30 June)
Great shakes (23 June)

Where is she now?

Abby works as a communications officer at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Research News office (gtresearchnews.gatech.edu). In her current position, she writes about Georgia Tech research in news releases and articles for the Georgia Tech research magazine, Research Horizons. Following her fellowship, Abby became active in IEEE-USA and serves as a member of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee and as one of the editors for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer (todaysengineer.org).

"The mass media fellowship changed my career path from biomedical engineer to science writer and I couldn't be happier," Abby says. "Every day I get to learn about a new discovery and communicate the exciting research to the general public through my writing."
 

	Drunk Bees (3.4 MB)		Moth Music (3.5 MB)
	E-Voting (1.3 MB)		Snake Lady (2.7 MB)
	State Fair Chickens (1.7 MB)

Where is she now?

Sarah is an assistant professor in engineering at Harvey Mudd College. She has continued with her love of writing by publishing a textbook in 2007 called Digital Design and Computer Architecture, with a co-author David Harris (no relation).

"I've used and built on the skills I learned from my mentors at WOSU, such as Tom Borgerding," Sarah says. "The fellowship experience helped prepare the way for me as a professor to make science and engineering not only more accessible – but also fun and engaging."
 

Where is she now?

Joy is currently the Director of Dissemination for Simbios, an NIH center for biomedical computing at Stanford University (simbios.stanford.edu). Her job is a mix of public relations, journalism and curriculum development/technical writing. She is an associate editor for Simbios' quarterly magazine, Biomedical Computation Review, where she draws on the newswriting and editing skills that she learned during her mass media fellowship.

"My mass media fellows experience has given me an edge when applying for my last couple of jobs, as it highlighted my ability both to write and to gather and synthesize information," Joy says.
 

Where is he now?

Rob is currently working for the energy consulting firm Cambridge
Energy Research Associates (CERA) in the Climate Change and Clean
Energy practice. He advises companies on strategies for complying with
both existing and future environmental polices and he's particularly
focused on carbon markets and clean energy technologies.

"The mass media fellowship was an exciting opportunity and the
communications experience benefited me greatly," Rob says. "In my
current job, I do a significant amount of writing and public speaking
- both skills that the IEEE-USA-sponsored mass media fellowship helped
to foster."