KASTENS 9805727 This award supports research experience for students who are in training to become science journalists. The students are master's degree candidates in a dual master's degree program in "Earth and Environmental Science Journalism". This two-year program combines the resources of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and the Graduate School of Journalism, all of Columbia University. The program's overarching goal is to train print, broadcast and new media journalists who will report news pertaining to the Earth or Environment in a manner that is interesting, insightful, and accurate. In addition to formal coursework in science and journalism, all E&ESJ students are required to compete an extensive scientific research project, which they write up as a master's paper and defend to a faculty committee. The research can be conducted at any of the research centers that have faculty affiliated with the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), Goddard Institute for Space Sciences (GISS), the American Museum of Natural History, or Biosphere 2. The best way for prospective journalists to learn what science is all about is by doing real science, with their own hands and brains.
