Ellen Ruppel Shell
Professor and Co-Director
A correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, Ellen Ruppel Shell writes about science and public policy for such national publications as The New York Times, Seed, Discover and the Washington Post. She has served as an editor for a number of magazines and for public broadcasting, and is sought out frequently as a commentator on issues of science and the press. Her most recent book, The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin (Grove/Atlantic, 2002), published in six languages, took an unflinching look at the spreading obesity pandemic. Critics called it "enthralling," written with a
"narrative gift that transforms the story of history, science and politics of obesity" into "observant little dramas" that are both "fascinating" and "chilling."

Douglas Starr
Professor and Co-Director
Doug Starr is the author of the book BLOOD: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce (Knopf, 1998), which was published in five languages, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (science and technology category) and was named to the "Best Books of the Year" lists of Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal. A PBS series based on the book aired on more than 300 PBS stations in the U.S., and in nine foreign countries. Starr's writings about medicine, public health and the environment have appeared in a variety of venues, including The New Republic, Science, Smithsonian, Public Television, National Public Radio, The Los Angles Times, and the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. He has appeared as a commentator on ABC's Nightline, the BBC, CNN and NPR, and served as a juror for the 2002 general non-fiction Pulitzer Prize.

Gino Del Guercio
Adjunct Professor of Journalism
Gino Del Guercio is a documentary filmmaker who has produced and directed television programs for PBS, Discovery Channel and A&E. He is currently directing a new two-hour feature film about an expedition to the high Arctic called Searching for Adolphus Greely. He also recently produced a four-hour series for PBS called Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood, and co-produced a documentary about the Wright Brothers for NOVA. He has won numerous awards including an Emmy, the AAAS Journalism Prize, and a CINE Golden Eagle.

Mr. Del Guercio trained as a television producer at WGBH-TV in Boston. He has taught in the Boston University Journalism Department since 1988. His writing has been published in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, as well as numerous other newspapers and magazines.

Michael Balter
Adjunct Professor of Journalism
Michael Balter has been a journalist for 30 years, the last 20 of them based in Paris, France. He was Paris bureau chief for Science from 1991 to 2002, and continues to write regularly for the journal's news pages as a Contributing Correspondent. He also contributes to the New York Times Science Times and the Los Angeles Times opinion pages. Trained as a biologist at UCLA before going into journalism, he has covered all aspects of biology and medicine during his long career, as well as the politics and financing of scientific research; but more recently, he has focused on coverage of archaeology and human evolution. That focus led to his 2005 book, The Goddess and the Bull (Free Press), about the famous excavations at Neolithic Catalhoyuk in Turkey and the origins of civilization. Balter also has a side career as a travel and food writer: His work has appeared in Islands, Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, The Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune, among many other publications.