MSNBC science editor is visiting writer

Alan Boyle, science editor for MSNBC on the Internet, has been named the University of Wisconsin–Madison Science Writer in Residence for this spring.

Boyle will spend the week of April 20 at UW–Madison, visiting classes and working individually with students, staff and faculty to provide insight into the business of producing science stories for a leading Internet news destination. He will also give a free public lecture, "Britney Spears vs. Chimps With Spears: Talking About Science in a Tabloid Culture," at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, in the UW–Madison Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.

Boyle began his career at the Cincinnati Post. In 1978, he joined the staff of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., where he served as assistant city editor and features editor. He later became the feature desk copy chief and the foreign desk editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 1996, he left the Post-Intelligencer for MSNBC, becoming science editor in 1997.

Boyle has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Award, the 2002 Science in Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers and the 2006 Space Journalism Prize from the Space Frontier Foundation. He is a board member of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

The UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence Program, now in its 23rd year, was established with the help of the Brittingham Trust and continues with support from the UW Foundation. Past visiting writers include many of the nation’s leading science writers, including three whose work subsequently earned them the Pulitzer Prize.

The UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence Program is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and University Communications.