STC is proud to announce Alan Alda as the 2014 Honorary Fellow. Alan will be accepting the honor via a taped message at the 2014 Technical Communication Summit during the Opening General Session on Sunday, 18 May.
His citation reads:
For your long-standing and continuing effort to emphasize and promote the importance of good scientific communication and teach scientists to communicate clearly and simply, with both The Flame Challenge and the Stony Brook University Center for Communicating Science.
Alda is the idea behind, namesake of, and a visiting professor at Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. The mission, from their website, states, “The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science works to enhance understanding of science by helping train the next generation of scientists and health professionals to communicate more effectively with the public, public officials, the media, and others outside their own discipline.” Together Alda and the Center host the annual Flame Challenge, which asks scientists from around the world to communicate complex science in ways that would interest and enlighten an 11-year-old.
“I can’t think of anyone who deserves this honor more, and I am both humbled and thrilled to be presenting it to him (virtually) at the Summit in Phoenix,” said STC President Nicky Bleiel. “His yearly Flame Challenge and his work at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science show how deeply he embraces the core principles of technical communication, since both projects strive to make the complex clear and to communicate that information effectively. Mr. Alda is not only a great actor, he is a technical communicator.”
His long-time interest in science and in promoting a greater public understanding of science led to his hosting the award-winning PBS series Scientific American Frontiers for 11 years, on which he interviewed hundreds of scientists from around the world. In 2010, he hosted a science series on PBS called The Human Spark. On Broadway, he appeared as the physicist Richard Feynman in the play QED. In 2002, he had the honor of giving the commencement talk at Caltech, where Feynman himself had delivered the commencement address 28 years earlier.
“I've been a fan of Alan Alda’s Scientific American Frontiers shows on PBS for years,” enthused Paul Mueller, chair of the Honorary Fellow Committee. “The mission of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science says it all. Mr. Alda clearly knows the importance of good communication.”
Alda, a seven-time Emmy Award–winner, played Hawkeye Pierce on the classic television series, M*A*S*H, and appeared in continuing roles on ER, The West Wing, 30 Rock, and The Blacklist. He has 33 Emmy nominations as actor, writer, and director, and is a Television Hall of Fame inductee. On film, he has starred in, as well as written and directed, many features, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the Aviator. He has appeared often on the Broadway stage, where he received three Tony nominations.
Please join us in Phoenix to help us celebrate the work of Alan Alda and formally induct him into the Society as an Honorary Fellow!