About – Fathom-Science

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About Fathom-Science

I speak and write about science, technology, and medicine to a smart, informed public which is hungry to know and doesn’t have the time or patience to sift through pretentious jargon. I am not a priestess condescending to the masses. I don’t “dumb down” anything. My readers want to understand the world, from gluons to galaxies, from genomes to biomes, from quasicrystals to cannabis. I can help. TOPICS

Global Warning:

If scientists are so sure climate change is upon us, why doesn’t everyone believe them? What do we know? And what should we do about it?

Alexaphobia:

Scientists researching artificial intelligence are barreling along, working to create intelligent computer programs that can simulate human actions. How are we supposed to feel about that? Should we be excited? Or should we be afraid?

Brave New World:

The public may not know it but we are on the verge of a revolutionary change in biology. A technology known as genome editing will make designer genes possible and grant us a greater degree of control over human reproduction than ever before. How do we maximize the benefits without crossing an ethical line?

Science Matters:

The U.S. government invests billions into research. Why should we care about basic research? What has it done for us lately?

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About Me

Kitta MacPherson, an award-winning science journalist and communicator, teaches journalism and communications at Rutgers University and St. Benedict’s Preparatory School and provides speaking and science writing services through her firm, Fathom-Science LLC. She is a published fiction writer and essayist and is currently working on a novel. She also is a skilled public speaker, communicating the value and history of science to the public. She was recently recognized as a “Top 25” Brand Builder by Leading Women Entrepreneurs.

During an award-winning career in daily newspaper journalism, most of it at The Star-Ledger of Newark, MacPherson reported on numerous breakthroughs in science — including a fusion test reactor experiment that attained record levels of power — and examined the research behind the controversies over genetically engineered food and global warming. She was one of the first to chronicle revolutionary advances in treatments for AIDS, cancer and addiction. She produced investigations of diet drugs and obesity statistics. Earlier, she was a reporter and manager of The Star-Ledger’s Passaic Bureau in Paterson and a police reporter at the Bergen Record in Hackensack.

Before joining the Rutgers faculty, MacPherson served as director of communications for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), one of the world’s leading research centers. She joined the Laboratory after serving as Princeton University’s lead science writer in its Office of Communications.

At PPPL, MacPherson led a national effort to publicize fusion energy. She was responsible for directing media relations and overseeing external and internal communications, for which she collaborated with University leaders as well as groups in the energy policy community. She served as the lead media contact and spokesperson for the Lab and oversaw the development of a wide range of new content employing video, social media and other communications tools. The Office of Communications team she formed functioned as a veritable fusion and plasma physics news bureau.

With Princeton University’s Office of Communications, MacPherson won gold and silver medals from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for her news releases on subjects including astronomical sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics, molecular biology, music theory and public health.

MacPherson holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Non-Fiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She attended Union College and FDU as an undergraduate, graduating magna cum laude from FDU. She was married to the noted civil rights attorney Walter Lucas, who died in 2004. She is the proud mother of their three children.

MacPherson has won a Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers, a National Communications Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and several writing awards from the New Jersey Press Association. She was honored with a “Communicator Award” from the International Academy of Visual Arts in 2012 for a video she made on a Princeton biologist who studies slime molds.

Her childhood on Long Island gave her a life-long appreciation of the sea. She was raised in a public-minded family. Her father, John MacPherson, worked for the U.S. Department of State and her mother, Muriel Kirkpatrick MacPherson, was a television pioneer, notably performing as a Weather Girl on the Today Show in the 1950s with Dave Garroway.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]