Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
Relationship Graph
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
MIT does not have a journalism school or degree program. Its relevant unit is the Knight Science Journalism Program (KSJ@MIT), a nine-month, non-degree fellowship for mid-career science, technology, medicine, and environment journalists. Fellows audit coursework and conduct research at MIT, Harvard, and surrounding institutions across two semesters.
KSJ@MIT admits 8 to 15 journalists annually from an international applicant pool and has hosted more than 400 fellows from outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Science, and CNN. The program awards the Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional science journalism and produces the KSJ Tracker, a critique of published science journalism.
The program was launched in 1983 by science journalist Victor McElheny, together with then-MIT president Paul Gray and STS program director Carl Kaysen, modeled on the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, where McElheny had himself been a 1962-63 fellow. Originally known as the Vannevar Bush Science Journalism Fellowship Program, it was renamed after a 1987 endowment grant from the Knight Foundation. It is administratively part of MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Usha Lee McFarling: Director since August 2025, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former national science correspondent for STAT.
Deborah Blum: Director from 2015 to 2025, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
Victor K. McElheny: Founding director (1983-1998), who died July 14, 2025, at age 89.
Address
MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society
Cambridge, MA 02139
Website
https://ksj.mit.edu