The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT has introduced a brand new one-semester fellowship — the Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East — that can begin this yr.
The fellowship, developed by a beneficiant present from the worldwide publishing firm Springer Nature, was created in honor of the influential Egyptian science journalist Mohammed Yahia, who died final yr on the age of 41.
Yahia labored for Springer Nature for over 13 years, primarily as managing editor of the Nature Portfolio within the Middle East, the place he constructed an award-winning crew. He was broadly admired for his work advancing the standing of science journalism each in that area and all through Africa. He was president of the World Federation of Science Journalists from 2017 to 2019, working additionally to assist construct a community of science journalists across the globe.
Springer Nature, the founding sponsor of the fellowship, is well-known for its standing as a writer of a few of the most high-profile and revered analysis journals and magazines on this planet. “Mohammed was identified for his unwavering dedication to science and his expertise for simplifying complicated analysis,” says Stephen Pincock, vice chairman in Springer Nature’s Solutions Group. “With this fellowship we wish to encourage extra to comply with in his footsteps, as trusted communicators of evidence-based analysis.”
The first Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East will likely be hosted by the Knight Science Journalism Program this fall and can proceed in subsequent fall semesters. Thanks to a beneficiant grant from Springer Nature, this system will supply a $40,000 stipend for the fellowship interval from Aug. 16 to Dec. 31. KSJ will even cowl the guy’s medical health insurance and a $5,000 housing stipend to assist with relocation prices.
The Knight Science Journalism Program, established at MIT in 1983, is the world’s main science journalism fellowship program. More than 400 main science journalists from six continents have graduated from the full-year tutorial program, which affords a course of research at MIT, Harvard University, and different main establishments within the Boston space, in addition to specialised coaching workshops, seminars, and science-focused subject journeys for all attendees.
“The Knight Science Journalism Program is honored to companion with Springer Nature in honoring Mohammed Yahia and in creating this new fellowship to assist assist science journalism on this necessary a part of the world,” says KSJ Director Deborah Blum. “We strongly consider within the world nature of each science and the significance of telling its story in essentially the most useful and insightful approach. We consider this new fellowship is a superb option to advance that mission.”
Fellows supported by this new program will be a part of the common KSJ class of journalists for the autumn semester in a program of research at MIT and different Cambridge/Boston space universities and in this system’s seminars, coaching workshops, and subject journeys all through the semester. They will even have entry to such advantages as MIT’s program of sponsored public transportation and entry to libraries, museums, and different Boston-area applications, in addition to connections to a thriving neighborhood of science journalists.
The program will open an utility course of for journalists from Africa and the Middle East on Feb. 1 and submissions will likely be accepted till March 1. All journalists from the area with no less than three years of expertise in overlaying science, well being, and the atmosphere are inspired to use. The chosen fellow will likely be introduced by the top of March.
For additional questions in regards to the fellowship or the appliance course of, please write to data@ksj.mit.edu.