Registration for the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists Opens May 1, 2017
Mark your calendars for October 26-30, 2017, to attend the 10th World Conference of Science Journalist in San Francisco, the first to be held in the U.S. Registration opens on May 1, 2017. Register early to get discounts and the hotel accommodations, workshops, and field trips you want.
The WCSJ2017 program is by any measure an extraordinary one. It offers 49 breakout sessions selected and organized under the guidance and vision of a truly international program committee from nearly 400 proposals submitted by your fellow science journalists. It includes a track on global health journalism produced by the Association of Health Care Journalists and a rich selection of New Horizons in Science sessions organized by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, featuring the latest in leading-edge science. This is truly a global program by science journalists for science journalists. It is designed to instruct, inform, involve and inspire attendees looking for reporting and storytelling tips and eager to stay abreast of the professional challenges and scientific developments currently driving science journalism.
The program, to be published May 1, includes these themes:
- Issues in Science & Science Journalism
- Science Storytelling
- Climate, Environment & Sustainability
- Innovation
- Latin America & the Caribbean
WCSJ2017 plenary speakers include Thierry Zomahoun, president and chief executive officer of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences; UC Berkeley biologist Jennifer Doudna; Jeffrey Bluestone of UCSF, president and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; Alberto Cairo, Knight chair in visual journalism at the University of Miami, and Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mary Roach, bestselling author of Stiff and Packing for Mars, will appear in a joint plenary session with Ed Yong, writer for The Atlantic and author of I Contain Multitudes. The program will also include a plenary session on Science Journalism, Authoritarian Regimes, and Pseudoscience.
You will want to stick around for the tours as well. Free lab tours and Lunch with a Scientist are offered at UCSF, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as part of University Day on Sunday, October 29. In addition, 13 field trips on Monday, October 30 will cover everything from wine country science to deep sea robots, redwood forests and earth imaging satellites. Johnson & Johnson is opening their biotech labs, the U.S. Geological Survey will show you the actual crack representing the San Andreas Fault and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the Point Reyes Field Station and the National Ignition Facility offer other fascinating tours. Registration for most tours will be at the below-cost rate of $20-$25.
Attendees able to arrive early can choose from several pre-conference activities scheduled:
- The full-day Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism Workshop for Latin American and Caribbean Journalists on Wednesday, October 25.
- Thursday morning, October 26, a pre-conference symposium on “New Genetic Technologies: Ethical Debates and Global Science Policy” organized by The Hastings Center, a bioethics research center in New York; and
- Workshops on “Emerging Infectious Diseases: Post Zika in Latin America and the Caribbean,” also Thursday morning, and Wednesday at UC Davis on “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security,” both sponsored by Research Councils UK and presented by the World Federation of Science Journalists.
Pre-conference workshop seating will be limited, so early registration is essential. Student journalists selected for fellowships will also be provided a pre-conference training workshop.
WCSJ2017 is hosted by the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. Host universities are UCSF and UC Berkeley. Our international partner is the World Federation of Science Journalists, which represents more than 50 science journalism groups from around the world. Locally, the Northern California Science Writers Association is organizing and coordinating the field trips.
To learn more, go to www.wcsj2017.org and sign up for the newsletter. Also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Basic registration fee information:
WFSJ-affiliated association members
-Early (until August 1, 2017): $299
-Regular (August 2- October 12, 2017): $359
-Students: $149
Non-members: $499
Non-member students: $199
Registration opens at wcsj2017.org at Noon Pacific time on Monday, May 1 and closes at 11:59 PM Pacific time on Thursday, October 12.
