News

UW lures Nova producer

The executive producer of Nova, PBS's popular science show, will be interacting with students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin next week.

University Communications and the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication chose Paula Apsell to spend a week at the university as this semester's UW Science Writer in Residence.

The program has been inviting scientific journalists to campus for nearly 20 years, according to Terry Devitt of University Communications.

The resident writers spend a week at the university attending journalism and science classes of all levels, sharing their expertise with students and faculty alike.

Devitt said Apsell is in the top echelon of science writers and it is an achievement for the program to have her participate.

"Paula Apsell is a figure of tremendous importance in the science-writing community," Devitt said. "Science touches us all every day, so it's really important that people have access to good information."

Apsell began working at Nova in 1975 as a producer, and after working at another station and studying for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became Nova's executive producer.

Three of the science writers who have visited UW as part of the program have gone on to win a Pulitzer Prize, according to Devitt. One of those Pulitzer Prize-wining writers is Deborah Blum, who later became a UW journalism professor.

Erica Salkin, undergraduate advisor in the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said UW's Science Writer in Residence Program could open students' eyes to career opportunities they may have never thought of. Apsell in particular, Salkin said, can give students a unique perspective on the professional world because of her "remarkable" career accomplishments.

"It gives them exposure to a professional," Salkin said, "and not just any professional, but a real leader in the field."

Apsell is giving a lecture titled "The Art of Science Television" at 4 p.m. in Grainger Hall Oct. 17.