Radiolab’s Soren Wheeler to be fall Science Writer in Residence

Soren Wheeler, an author and senior editor at Radiolab, has been named UW–Madison’s fall 2015 Science Writer in Residence.

Wheeler serves as producer, editor and reporter of the wildly popular, two-time Peabody Award-winning Radiolab, managing the editorial work of staff producers and overseeing the development of the show’s wide-ranging, science-informed stories. His radio work — which includes awards for stories about statistics and randomness, the periodic table, and a woman waking up from a coma — has led to invitations to lecture at numerous universities and deliver workshops to scientists, journalists and science communicators.

Before he joined Radiolab, Wheeler co-authored the book “Atlas of Science Literacy” for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and spent six years working with science teachers and writing about how students learn science. In 2006, he earned a master’s degree in science writing at Johns Hopkins University.

Wheeler will spend the week of Nov. 9 on campus, speaking in classes and working with students and faculty interested in science and journalism and the intersection of the two. On Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. in the Masley Media Room at the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St., he will give a free public lecture entitled “Ignorance, Failure, and Creating Curiosity.”

The UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence Program, now in its 29th year, brings some of the nation’s top science writers to Wisconsin. It was established with support from the Brittingham Trust, and continues with support from the UW Foundation. Past visiting writers include four whose work earned them the Pulitzer Prize.

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