Published by Communications and Public Affairs (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338
News Release
December 13, 2000
Award-winning science journalist to spend a year on Guelph campus writing on emerging food issues
Stephen Strauss, award-winning science writer, columnist and editorial board member with The Globe and Mail, has been named the inaugural winner of the Donner Foundation Fellowship at the University of Guelph.
The award allows the distinguished recipient to spend up to a year on the Guelph campus while writing a book exploring an emerging issue in agriculture, food or biotechnology, as well as delivering guest lectures to Guelph students and acting as a resource for media preparing stories on food system issues.
"This fellowship and the stature of our first fellow illustrate the key role Guelph plays in new areas of research and the importance we attach to communicating these advances to as wide an audience as possible," said Mordechai Rozanski, president of the University of Guelph. "We are honoured to have such a worthy and eminent inaugural fellow as Stephen Strauss. He is recognized nationally for his balanced, insightful and gifted writing and his commitment to explaining complex scientific issues to Canadians."
Strauss said he's pleased to be named the inaugural winner of this award. "I'm eager to begin work on a book about how the abundance of food in our lives both shapes and distorts our relationship to what we eat and how it is produced," he said. "Food Eden isn't necessarily seen as a human paradise. While my book will adhere to the highest academic standards, its explicit purpose is to foster and inform public debate, not only among politicians, but among ordinary Canadians." The fellowship begins Jan. 2, 2001.
Strauss, who has won numerous awards for his science writing, has also authored three books as well as a book chapter on biotechnology and the media. For a number of years, he was a contributing writer to MIT's Technology Review Magazine and is currently an advisory board member of the Statistical Assessment Service in Washington, D.C. Strauss has a BA in history, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Colorado, where he also received a Ford Foundation Scholarship.
Media may contact Stephen Strauss at 416-585-5013, or e-mail at sstrauss@globeandmail.ca, or Alex Wooley, manager, media relations, at the University of Guelph, 519-824-4120, Ext. 6982.
