Ivan Amato named Science Writer in Residence

Ivan Amato, a veteran science journalist and a senior editor for Chemical & Engineering News, has been named a UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence for the fall of 2005.

A former editor at Science and Science News, Amato is also an author, a poet and a puppeteer. As a science writer, he has contributed stories to U.S. News & World Report, Fortune, Discover, the Washington Post, Scientific American, the International Herald Tribune and Garbage, among others.

Amato will spend the week of Nov. 14 on the UW–Madison campus visiting classes and working individually with students, staff and faculty to provide insight into science news and how it is made and written.

He will also deliver a free public lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. in the Memorial Union (check TITU for a location). Amato’s talk, entitled “Beyond Vision,” will examine how scientists are attempting to make the very small and the very large accessible and scientifically revealing. He will examine – in a visual tour covering 40 orders of spatial magnitude from subatomic particles to the entirety of the universe – how scientists are artfully making the invisible visible. His talk is based in part on his latest book, “Super Vision,” which uses more than 200 scientific images and illustrations to demonstrate how scientists are documenting many of the hidden aspects of nature.

The Science Writer in Residence Program, now in its nineteenth year, was established with the help of the Brittingham Trust and continues with support from the UW Foundation. Past visiting writers include many of the nation’s leading science writers, including three writers whose work subsequently earned them the Pulitzer Prize.

The UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence Program is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and University Communications.