Brownlee selected as science writer-in-residence

Shannon Brownlee, an award-winning science journalist, will be the science writer in residence for spring 2001.

Brownlee is a freelance writer whose stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Business Week and Salon.

As a part of her visit, Brownlee will deliver a free public lecture, “Bad Medicine, Bad Press: How Bone Marrow Transplant Came to Be Seen as a Cure,” on Tuesday, April 17, at 4 p.m. The lecture will be held in the Nafziger Room on the fifth floor of Vilas Hall.

Brownlee is a former senior writer for U.S. News & World Report, where she focused on cancer research, infectious disease, neurobiology and health policy. She has won several awards, including the 1998 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for “The Quality of Mercy,” a story about inadequate pain treatment that appeared in U.S. News & World Report.

Brownlee will begin her week on the UW–Madison campus Monday, April 16. She will spend most of her time in the classroom, working with students, faculty and staff interested in science writing.

The Science Writer-in-Residence Program, now in its 15th 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 coveted award.

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