What is TallkingScience?

We’re a 501 (3)(c) nonprofit organization with a mission to bring the latest discoveries, innovations and controversies in science and technology to a public that hardly ever sees them. Partnering with the popular and highly respected Science Friday radio program and Web site, TalkingScience aims to provide everyone (and young people in particular) with live events, blogs, video, and a platform to discuss and participate in science via cyberspace. TalkingScience also reaches out to science museums and educational organizations to provide entertaining and motivating audio, video and Internet content that can be used in science programs and curricula. You can rely on TalkingScience to stay in tune with the latest technologies for a user-friendly, fun approach to science.

TalkingScience Board of Directors:

•Richard Firestone, independent consultant, engineer and former member of the technical staff of National Public Radio and Voice of America.

•Lawrence Krauss, Ph.D., TalkingScience board member. Lawrence is a world-renowned cosmologist and chair of the department of physics at Case Western Reserve University. He is author of the best-selling book, The Physics of Star Trek.

•Paul Raeburn, science and medical journalist whose work has appeared most recently in The New York Times Magazine. Former editor and correspondent for the Associated Press and BusinessWee, Mr. Raeburn is author of several books, most recently Acquainted with the Night: A Parent’s Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children. He has been a member of the boards of both the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

•Mary Smart, board member of the Smart Family Foundation. Ms. Smart’s interests include teen health and new non-profits and start-up companies.

•Darcy B. Kelley, Ph.D., is Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University’s Center for NeuroBiology and Behavior. With support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she has developed Frontiers of Science, an innovative sciences curriculum for Columbia undergraduates. She also is scientific advisor to the Ensemble Theatre Company and other theatre and film projects for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

TalkingScience’s Senior Staff:

•Lawrence Krauss, Ph.D., TalkingScience board member. Lawrence is a world-renowned cosmologist and chair of the department of physics at Case Western Reserve University. He is author of the best-selling book, The Physics of Star Trek. He is assisting with fundraising and programming content and design for science satellite/Internet radio.

•Ann Marie Cunningham, executive director, TalkingScience. Ann Marie is a best-selling science print journalist (Ryan White: My Own Story) and award-winning television producer who helped develop the PBS series Ghostwriter, CRO, Cyberchase, and Innovation. Among other broadcast projects, she has produced for Sesame Workshop (formerly Children’s Television Workshop), ABC, NBC, PBS, and New York Times Television. In 1979, she served on the staff of President Jimmy Carter’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. She is responsible for TalkingScience’s fundraising, project development, and outreach.

•Talia Page, Talia has a background in the arts and manages programs that integrate education and humanities with the sciences. In her spare time she writes for Space Lifestyle magazine and a variety of other newspapers and on-line sources. She is also the Chief Editor for the Imagine Science Film Festival, which will collaborate with TalkingScience to bring a weekend of science and fiction to every borough of New York City. Talia also collaborates with CUNY and the New York Public Library to produce public events for science education.

Scientific Advisors:

•Sat Bhattacharya, Ph.D., is a researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and adjunct professor at Rockefeller University. He has been honored by the New York Academy of Sciences for founding the Harlem Children Society, which places New York City high school students with mentors to carry out research in labs at the city’s leading scientific institutions. Most of the students go on to college.

•Dalton Conley, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at New York University, where he studies race and class. In spring 2005, the National Science Board honored Dr. Conley for excellence in communicating science.

•Jeffrey M. Friedman, Ph.D., is Professor of Molecular Biology at Rockefeller University, and an expert on the genetic origins of obesity. He is advising us on Teens Talk Health.

•Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., is Valley Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University, and chair of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program which trains environmental scientists to be effective communicators and leaders. She is a member of the National Science Board, the New York Academy of Science and the Council of the National Academies of Science. Besides TalkingScience, she also advises the National Research Council, NPR, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

•Ainissa G. Ramirez, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. She created and hosts Yale’s Science Saturdays series (www.sciencesaturdays.org) for students in the seventh grade and up. The series introduces students to scientists – who they are, how and why they do what they do. Dr. Ramirez also advises the NISE Network, a group of science museums and outreach organizations engaged in informing the public about nanotechnology.

•David Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor of Chemistry and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. He has developed new tools to speed DNA mapping that accelerated work on the human genome. Currently, he is scientific advisor for a new play about genetics supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

•Dorothy Shore Zinberg, Ph.D., holds joint appointments at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and University College London. At the Kennedy School, she is Lecturer in Public Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and on the faculty of the Program for Science, Technology and Public Policy. She recently served on NATO’s Science and Technology Policy Committee.