Date: Nov. 19, 2008
Contacts: Maureen O'Leary, Director of Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu
Ann Merchant, Director of Outreach and Marketing
202-334-3117; e-mail amerchant@nas.edu
Yusef Robb,
323-384-1789; email yrobb@griffinschake.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NAS Announces Initiative to Connect Entertainment Industry With Top Experts
LOS ANGELES -- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced today the creation of "The Science and Entertainment Exchange," an initiative designed to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers to help the creators of television shows, films, video games, and other productions incorporate science into their work. The Exchange represents the Academy's first formal effort to reach out to the entertainment community and provide the creative minds of
"Television and film can involve the public in the latest advances in science, medicine, and technology," said NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. "By building strong connections between the entertainment and science communities, we're hoping to provide an important service to both
Director Jerry Zucker and his wife, producer Janet Zucker, actively support the initiative. "The Exchange will provide filmmakers with an invaluable connection to scientific truth, but more importantly, we will have the ability to invent and explore the unknown with the great visionaries of science," said Jerry. Janet Zucker added, "The Exchange will provide a place where scientific and artistic minds can come together to inspire each other, building a two-way street for both communities to learn and create."
Relying on the special connections available to the NAS, the Exchange can make introductions, schedule briefings, and arrange for consultations for anyone developing science-based entertainment content. Endorsed by the Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, and Women in Film, this new resource is being promoted to all levels of writers, directors, producers, and others in the entertainment industry. Professionals involved in the creative process may contact the Exchange to be connected with scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts for help with their productions and stories.
As science and technology have become staples of American television, the bar has been raised for better and more accurate science. Forensic investigation and medical shows such as CSI, House, and ER routinely incorporate cutting-edge science into their scripts. Studio films similarly capitalize on science themes. Movies such as Children of Men,
Today, the Exchange was formally introduced to the Hollywood community during a symposium attended by entertainment industry professionals in
The director of the Science and Entertainment Exchange is Jennifer Ouellette, an author and science writer. "Tapping into the NAS' database of experts will be a tremendous resource for
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[ This news release is available at http://national-academies.org ]
THE SCIENCE AND ENTERTAINMENT EXCHANGE
ADVISORY BOARD
Ralph J. Cicerone, Chair
President
Janet Zucker, Vice Chair
Producer
Jerry Zucker, Vice Chair
Director
Patrick Soon-Shiong, Vice Chair
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Abraxis Bioscience Inc. and
The Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation
Len Amato
President
HBO Films
Paula Apsell
Senior Executive Producer
NOVA; and
Director
WGBH Science Unit
Dave Bartis
Producer
Gregory Benford
Professor of Physics
May Berenbaum
Professor of Entomology
Adam Bly
Founder and Publisher
SEED
President and General Manager
Emerging Networks
Discovery Communications
Rick Carter
Production Designer
Steve
Director
Cell Biology
1997 Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Frank Darabont
Writer, Producer, and Director
Keith Devlin
Executive Director
Center for the Study of Language and Information,
and
Consulting Professor of Mathematics
Jon Farhat
Director
VFX
Anthony Fauci
Director
National
Sid Ganis
Producer
Julie Gerberding
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Neil Gershenfeld
Director
Center for Bits and Atoms
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ronald Graham
Professor of Computer Science and
Engineering
Chief Scientist
California Institute for Telecommunications and
Information Technology
Brian Greene
Professor of Mathematics and Physics
Director and Producer
Robert M. Hazen
Research Scientist
Carnegie Institution for Science’s Geophysical
Laboratory; and
Clarence Robinson Professor of
Dudley Herschbach
Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
1986 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
Marshall Herskovitz
Producer, Writer, and Director
Dustin Hoffman
Actor and Producer
Marty Kaplan
Norman Lear Chair in Entertainment, Media, and
Society
Director
The
Director, Writer, and Producer
Jeffrey Koplan
Vice President for Academic Health Affairs
Professor
Sherry Lansing
Founder
Sherry Lansing Foundation
Leon Lederman
Director Emeritus
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; and
Pritzker Professor of Science
Illinois Institute of Technology; and
1988 Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Doug Liman
Producer and Director
Seth MacFarlane
Writer, Actor, and Producer
Alex McDowell
Production Designer
Marvin Minsky
Professor of Computer Science and Media Arts and
Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sidney Perkowitz
Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics
Steven Pinker
Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology
Professor of Neurology, and
Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative
Diseases
1997 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine
Rob Reiner
Actor, Producer, Writer, and Director
John Rennie
Editor in Chief
Scientific American
Jay Roach
Director, Writer, and Producer
Bruce Joel Rubin
Writer
Oliver Sacks
Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry
Barbara Schaal
Vice President
Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology, and
Director
Schaal Lab
Tom Schulman
Writer
Jeffrey Silver
Producer
Anne E. Simon
Professor
Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
Alex Singer
Director
Robert Sproull
Vice President and Sun Fellow
Sun Microsystems Inc.
John Underkoffler
Co-Founder
Oblong Industries
J. Craig Venter
President
J. Craig Venter Institute
Doron Weber
Director for Public Understanding of Science and
Technology and the History of Science and
Technology
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
STAFF
Ann Merchant
Director of Outreach and Marketing
National Academies Press