Fred Jerome is a veteran journalist and science writer whose articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in dozens of publications, including Newsweek and The New York Times. As a reporter in the South during the early 1960s, he covered the exploding civil rights movement, and, more recently, has taught journalism at Columbia Journalism School, NYU, and numerous other New York-area universities. In 2002, he developed and taught a course at New School University, titled "Scientists as Rebels."
In 1979, he invented the Media Resource Service, a widely acclaimed telephone referral service putting thousands of journalists in touch with scientists. More than 30,000 scientists volunteered for the MRS, answering media questions in their areas of expertise. But the success of the MRS was before the Internet. "If I'd really been smart," he says, "I'd have invented the Internet, instead."
His most recent book, written with co-author Rodger Taylor, Einstein on Race and Racism, will be published in July 2005 by Rutgers University Press. (www.Einsteinonrace.com)