Johns Hopkins Medicine has pledged sponsorship for the 2019 EurekAlert! Fellowships for International Science Reporters.
"Johns Hopkins Medicine is so excited to support international science journalism and enable a journalist from China to travel to the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting, as doing so supports our goals of increasing the public's understanding of science around the world," said Audrey Huang, the director of marketing and communications for research and education at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Established in 2004 , the fellowship program supports science reporters with less than 5 years of experience from transitional economies by funding their travel to the AAAS Annual Meeting, the largest general scientific gathering in the world. Past EurekAlert! Fellows have come from the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, India, China, and - for the first time in 2018 - the Balkans.
"The EurekAlert! fellowship program was very important to my career development as a science reporter," says Gan Xiao, a 2014 EurekAlert! fellow from China. She is now a senior reporter with China Science Daily. "Because of this international platform, I was able to learn the latest scientific findings in a close range and establish relationships with the world's leading research institutions. The Chinese science communication community highly acknowledges the Fellowships, which also brought valuable opportunities for me to develop my career as a young reporter."
In addition to sponsoring the Fellowship program, Huang and Alsy Acevedo, senior media relations representative at Johns Hopkins Medicine International, are sharing their expertise this week with peers in China. Made possible by partnerships between EurekAlert! and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Association of Science Journalists, the workshops aim to encourage broad communication of science globally.
"In the past four years, EurekAlert! has helped elevate the professionalism and status of public information officers in China through skill-building workshops and guest lectures by international science journalists," said Joy Ma, an editorial content manager at EurekAlert!, who has helped organize - and delivered training at - more than a dozen China events. "By supporting both reporters and PIOs, we hope to increase the quantity and quality of science news in and from China to the world."
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