2007 Honorary Member
K.C. Cole is a visiting professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School, where she is developing a master's program in science journalism. She has been a science writer and columnist for The Los Angeles Times, and is the author of seven nonfiction books—most recentlyMind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos. Her articles, which have been featured in The Best American Science Writing 2004 and 2005 and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002, include contributions to The New Yorker, The Smithsonian, The New York Times, Newsweek, Discover, Newsday, Esquire,Ms. and The Washington Post. She has developed and taught courses in science and culture at Wesleyan University, Yale and UCLA. She has also been a regular commentator on science issues for KPCC-FM and for NPR's Science Friday year-end science wrap-up. Cole particularly likes to show how science is integral to the arts and politics (and vice versa), and firmly believes, in the words of an artist friend that, "the worst disease afflicting human kind is 'hardening of the categories.'" To that end, she runs a monthly series of informal events on science/art/politics known as Categorically Not! She's made a point of writing about science in unlikely venues (such as women's magazines) and unlikely forms. Her honors include the American Institute of Physics Science Writing prize, The Los Angeles Times Award for deadline reporting and the Skeptics' Society Edward R. Murrow Award for Thoughtful Coverage of Scientific Controversies. Cole has been associated with San Francisco's Exploratorium since 1972 and is currently working on a philosophical biography of its founder (and her mentor), the late physicist Frank Oppenheimer.