at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography Narragansett, RI — March 23, 2000 — The second annual Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting fellowships have been awarded to fourteen journalists who write for broadcast, print, and electronic media. Working with scientists in the laboratory and in the field, they will participate in a five-day workshop from June 25-30 at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) on “Measuring Change in the Coastal Environment: Fisheries, Beach Erosion, and Water and Air Pollution.” The Metcalf Institute provides journalists and scientists a venue to work together to improve the accuracy and clarity of marine and environmental reporting. The journalists are Vivian Baah, reporter, Centre for Environmental Communications, Ghana, West Africa; Allen Brettman, reporter, The Daily News, Longview, Washington; David Case, reporter, TomPaine.com, Washington, DC; Brooke Donald, bureau editor, The Baltic Times, Tallinn, Estonia; Ron Feemster, freelance writer, New York, NY; Michael Greenwood, staff writer, The Hartford Courant, Avon, Connecticut; Mari Jensen, freelance writer, Tucson, Arizona; Samantha Levine, environmental reporter, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Washington, DC; Carol McCarthy, health and science editor, The Day, New London, Connecticut; Umesh Raghuvanshi, principal correspondent, The Hindustan Times, Lucknow, India; Gary Robbins, science writer, Orange County Register, Santa Ana, California; Erik Schwartz, staff writer, The Mercury, Pottstown, Pennsylvania; Randy Showstack, staff writer, EOS , Washington, DC; and Michael Smith, reporter, The Providence Journal, Warwick, Rhode Island. The Metcalf fellows will be housed at the University of Rhode Island and will participate in data collection, observation of natural environments, interactive laboratory tests and analysis, a debate, and lectures. The workshop emphasizes the cultures of science and the media, how scientific research is integrated into regulations and community planning, and the ethics and principles that guide scientific research. Journalists will conduct a fish trawl on Narragansett Bay, kayak and collect water samples on the Narrow River, visit the Woonasquatucket River, recently declared a Superfund site, and conduct geologic surveys of the southern Rhode Island coast. A variety of public events will be held each day during the workshop. On Monday, June 26, Dr. Penny Chisholm of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will give a lecture on iron fertilization of the ocean. The Tuesday, June 27, lecture will be given by New York Times science reporter William K. Stevens, who recently published a book, The Change in the Weather: People, Weather, and the Science of Climate. New York Times reporter Blaine Harden will discuss the topic of his recent book, A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia on Wednesday, June 28. A second lecture will be given by correspondent Robert Braile of The Boston Globe and photojournalist Andy Dickerman of The Providence Journal. They will give a talk and slide presentation on environmental news coverage. On Thursday, June 29, a panel discussion on the collective good and private rights will be moderated by New York Times science editor Cory Dean. Other panelists include Dr. James McCarthy of Harvard University, Dr. Rutherford Platt of the University of Massachusetts, and environmental reporter Scott Allen of The Boston Globe. The final public lecture on Friday, June 30, will be given by Dr. Margaret Leinen, former dean of GSO and now the Assistant Director for Geosciences of the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting was founded in 1997 by the A.H. Belo Corporation, The Providence Journal Foundation, and the Washington Post’s Philip Graham Fund, with additional funding from the Telaka Foundation in 1998. The Metcalf Institute was named in honor of the late publisher of The Providence Journal, Michael P. Metcalf. For more information visit the Metcalf Institute web site at www.gso.uri.edu/metcalf. x-x-x Visit the URI Graduate School of Oceanography website: http://www.gso.uri.edu/ Contact: Lisa Cugini, (401) 874-6642, lcugini@gso.uri.edu Jackleen de La Harpe, (401) 874-6211, jack@gso.uri.edu