The Fourth Israeli Science Communication Conference (Videos), held in June 2012, hosted leading science journalists Robert Krulwich and Nancy Shute at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Ms. Shute was at that time the President of the US National Association of Science Writers, which has over 2,000 members. She has reported on and edited science articles in a variety of newspapers, magazines, radio and television shows. She also lectures on science communication at Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. Krulwich is an esteemed American radio and television science correspondent, widely recognized for his ability to provide simple and entertaining explanations for complex phenomena. TV Guide called him “the most inventive network reporter in television”. He is a co-host of the award winning program “RadioLab” on National Public Radio, and a recipient of the AAAS science journalism award.
In addition, the president of the Technion, Prof. Peretz Lavie, opened the conference by describing his experience as a sleep researcher involved in the public discussion about daylight savings time. Leading journalist Dr. Ilana Dayan interviewed the 2011 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Distinguished Prof. Dan Shechtman, on his experience and insights during the most media-intensive year of his life. Linguist and writer Rubik Rosenthal spoke about the language of science, in honor of the one-hundredth anniversary of the resolution of the ”War of the Languages” at the Technion. Rosenthal described how in this debate on the institutional language of teaching, Hebrew, ultimately emerged victorious over German. An evening reception took place at the beautiful MadaTech – Israel National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa.