3 serve as writers in residence

Three journalists will visit campus in April to serve as writers in residence, delivering talks, and meeting with students and the public.

Here are details and contact information regarding each of the visits.

Randy Picht, Associated Press

Randy Picht, former Associated Press business editor and current director of AP’s Market Information group, will visit April 8-12 as the spring business writer in residence.

During the week, Picht will speak to journalism and business classes, consult with individual students and give a talk in the “What Matters to Me and Why” series in Chadbourne Hall.

Picht has been a business journalist for the Associated Press for 16 years. He began covering business news for AP in Rochester, N.Y. before moving to St. Louis to oversee news and business coverage. He was named business editor in New York in 1997 and oversaw the AP’s national business news report for 2 1/2 years.

Currently, Picht has one foot on the journalism side of the company and one foot on the business side, serving as director of AP’s Market Information group. Picht oversees the content, delivery and marketing of a $9.3 million business unit that generates customized stock market tables for 920 newspapers around the country.

Picht was born and raised in the Long Island suburbs of New York and received a bachelor’s of journalism degree from the University of Missouri.

The Picht residency is part of the ongoing Business Writer in Residence program, sponsored by the School of Business, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and University Communications, with support from the UW Foundation.

Richard L. Berke, The New York Times

Richard L. Berke, national political correspondent and senior writer for The New York Times, will be on campus April 15-19 as the spring public affairs writer in residence.

During the week, Berke will speak to journalism and political science classes, consult with individual students and give a talk in the “What Matters to Me and Why” series in Chadbourne Hall.

Berke currently covers national politics and has been a reporter or an editor in the Times’ Washington bureau since 1986, during which he covered the 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns. His “beats” have also included Congress, the White House, and money and politics.

Berke has made frequent television and radio appearances on such programs as Nightline, Today, Charlie Rose, Good Morning America,
The News with Brian Williams, Washington Week in Review, CNN’s Inside
Politics and Reliable Sources, and the Diane Rehm Show.

In 1999, Berke was named by Brill’s Content magazine as one of the most influential 25 people in American media.

Berke was with the Baltimore Evening Sun from 1981 until 1986, where he eventually became chief Washington correspondent. He was also a general assignment reporter on the city desk of The Minneapolis Tribune in 1980.

Born in Washington, D.C., Berke received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1980 and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1981.

The Public Affairs Writer in Residence program is sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs, Department of Political Science, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and University Communications; and supported by the University of Wisconsin Foundation.

Joe Palca, National Public Radio

Joe Palca, award-winning science correspondent for National Public Radio, has been named Science Writer in Residence for spring 2002.

As a visiting writer to the Madison campus, Palca will spend the week of April 28 on the Madison campus and will work with UW–Madison faculty, staff and students to convey a better appreciation and understanding of the business of science writing.

Palca will also deliver a public lecture, “Confusing the Public: Who Does It Better? Scientists or Journalists?” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at UW–Madison’s Memorial Union (check Today in the Union for a room number).

As senior science correspondent for NPR, Palca has covered the science news waterfront, reporting on everything from the latest biomedical research to the Mars Pathfinder mission. In addition to his science reporting, Palca co-hosted NPR’s weekly science program Sounds Like Science, and he has been a guest host for Morning Edition, Weekend All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation.

Before joining NPR in 1992, Palca worked as the Washington news editor for Nature, and then as a senior correspondent for Science. He has won numerous awards including the American Chemical Society’s Grady Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry in 1998, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Journalism Award, also in 1998.

The Science Writer in Residence Program, now in its 16th year, was established with the support of the Brittingham Trust. It continues with support from the UW Foundation and has brought to campus many of the nation’s leading science writers, including three whose work subsequently earned them the Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s most prestigious award.

The program is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and University Communications.