[ecrea] 7th World Conference of Science Journalists (Doha, 27-29 June 2011)

I’m writing to invite you to join us in Doha from 27 to 29 June for the 
7th World Conference of Science Journalists 2011 (WCSJ2011).



It’s already been a remarkable start to the year for science reporters 
with the continuing Japanese crisis and floods and earthquakes around 
the world. At the conference we will explore the challenges of reporting 
science in a crisis. We will discuss pseudoscience, publishing popular 
science books, covering oil spills, how to confront “bad science”, and 
how the changing face of journalism is affecting all of us.



We will also bring you first-hand accounts of the dramatic changes 
sweeping the Arab world. Our vantage point is Qatar, the home of Al 
Jazeera whose journalists are leading the reporting on the revolutionary 
changes. And we’ll explore what these changes will mean for science in 
the Middle East.



Why Doha? At the last conference in 2009 in London, we were proud to win 
the conference bid for Cairo. This past January and February 2011, we 
were even more proud to be Egyptian, as we joined millions of people who 
took to the streets to take control of our destiny. Together we 
witnessed and experienced some of the most difficult and some of the 
most rewarding times of our lives.



After the first phase of Egypt’s revolution was over with the 
resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak – and believe you me this 
is just the beginning – we met with our conference partners:  NASW 
(America’s National Association of Science Writers, the Arab Science 
Journalists Association (ASJA), and the World Federation of Science 
Journalists (WFSJ).  We agreed, with regret, that there were too many 
uncertainties to hold the conference in Cairo in June.



So with much appreciated support from the Qatar Foundation, the WCSJ2011 
Leading Partner, we have moved the Conference to the beautiful Arabian 
Gulf city of Doha.



We have over 180 speakers from all over the world and we will be 
bringing 100 developing country journalists to Doha.



The speakers include:

·         Ahmed Zewail, Linus Pauling Chair of Chemistry and Professor 
of Physics, California Institute of Technology; winner of 1999 Nobel 
Prize in Chemistry; board member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, 
Science and Community Development

·         Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science

·         Mariette di Christina, editor-in-chief of Scientific American

·         Mariko Takahashi, science editor at Asahi Shimbun

·         David Dickson, director, SciDev.net

·         Alok Jha, The Guardian (UK)

·         Andrew Jack, The Financial Times

·         Wilson da Silva, editor-in-chief, Cosmos Magazine

·         Shan Juan, China Daily

·         Robert Lee Hotz, The Wall Street Journal

·         Pallab Ghosh, BBC TV News

·         Phil Hilts, MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowships

·         Neil Turok, The Perimeter Institute

·         Maria Cheng, Associated Press

·         Ivan Oransky, Reuters Health

·         Henry Fountain, The New York Times

·         Elsabe Brits, DieBurger

·         Dominique Leglu, Science et Avenir

·         Mohammed Yahia, Nature Middle East

·         Diran Onifade, Nigerian Television Authority

·         Deborah Cohen, British Medical Journal

·         Chris Mooney, Discover

·         Antonio Regalado, Latin America Contributor, Science Magazine

·         Valeria Roman, Clarin

·         Tom Siegfried, editor-in-chief, Science News



And so many more – all listed at 
www.wcsj2011.org/program<http://www.wcsj2011.org/program>.



We will refine the program over the next few weeks with additional 
sessions to suit the exciting revolutionary times in the Arab world, how 
they have been affected by social media and what kinds of impacts we 
expect to see on science and science journalism.

Our leading sponsor in Doha, the Qatar Foundation, will be pulling 
together an exciting list of fieldtrips on June 30 so conference 
participants can explore what is happening in terms of research and 
development in this rapidly growing country.



You can register now at http://www.wcsj2011.org/user/register and early 
bird discounts are available until 12 April. We are currently working 
out accommodation and venue details in Doha and will announce those 
options soon.



Many organisations have come together to make the conference a success. 
They include our lead sponsor: the Qatar Foundation; and our silver 
partners: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
Science and EurekAlert!; and FAPESP. Our other supporters are listed below.



Be sure to follow @WCSJ2011 on twitter or to ‘like’ World Conference of 
Science Journalists on Facebook. And please email me if you have any 
questions or comments.



Kind regards,

Nadia

Nadia El-Awady
President, World Federation of Science Journalists
Co-Director, World Conference of Science Journalists 2011
Cairo, Egypt
Mobile: +20-10-615-2228
Email: (nadia.elawady /at/ wcsj2011.org)
World Conference of Science Journalists 2011  Doha, Qatar  June 27-29, 2011
www.wcsj2011.org<http://www.wcsj2011.org/>
(sent by Niall Byrne, 
(niall /at/ scienceinpublic.com.au)<mailto:(niall /at/ scienceinpublic.com.au)>, on 
Nadia’s behalf)

WCSJ2011 Seed Funders

Arab Science and Technology Foundation

American Association for the Advancement of Science

National Association of Science Writers

Council for the Advancement of Science Writing

Lead Sponsor

Qatar Foundation

WCSJ2011 Silver Partners

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and EurekAlert!

FAPESP

WCSJ2011 Supporters

The World Federation of Science Journalists

Wellcome Trust

Nature and Nature Middle East

Kavli Foundation

Research, Development and Innovation Programme

Many other organisations are supporting sessions, speakers and workshops 
and a range of sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Further details at http://www.wcsj2011.org/sponsors
----------------
ECREA-Mailing list
----------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA.
---
To unsubscribe, please visit http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
---
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Postal address:
ECREA
Université Libre de Bruxelles
c/o Dept. of Information and Communication Sciences
CP123, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, b-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------