Hill Lecture Series

The Alfred & Julia Hill Lecture Series on Science, Society, and the Mass Media was established in 1989 by Tom Hill, former publisher of The Oak Ridger, and Mary Frances Hill Holton in honor and memory of their parents.

Alfred and Julia Hill founded The Oak Ridger in 1949, seven years after the government established Oak Ridge to house workers on the atomic bomb project. The Oak Ridger was the first successful privately owned newspaper in the city and marked an important stage in the transition of Oak Ridge from federal operation to private ownership and self-government.

Tom Hill and Mary Frances Hill Holton were also the principal benefactors of an endowment for the School of Journalism and Electronic Media in 1987 to match State of Tennessee contributions to establish the Julia G. and Alfred G. Hill Chair of Excellence Professorship in Science, Technology, and Medical Writing and the Science Communication Program at the University of Tennessee.

Previous Hill Lectures

October 19, 2023	Rob Stein, Senior Editor on NPR’s science desk	Covering Science in a Post-Pandemic World
February 22, 2022	Michael Specter, Science Writer for The New Yorker	Believing Science in an Age of Denial
March 23, 2021	Anu Garg, Founder of Wordsmith.org	Language Myths & Hoaxes: A Humorous Look at Language Misconceptions
March 31, 2020	Robin Lloyd, Scientific American Writer and Editor	The End of Investigative Science Writing? (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic)
April 2, 2019	Sarah Holt , Scientific, and Historical film work	Turning Complex Science Stories into Compelling Television
April 10, 2018	Mark Schleifstein, The New Orleans Advocate, Environmental writer	Covering the environment as the media transforms around you
April 4, 2017	Joel Achenbach, Washington Post science writer	Navigating the Era of Fake News, Pseudoscience, and Bunk
March 29, 2016	Virginia Hughes, BuzzFeed News science editor	In Defense of Clickbait
March 24, 2015	Joe Palca, Science Correspondent for National Public Radio	Explaining the Universe in Two Minutes or Less
March 11, 2014	Ron Winslow, Medical Writer for The Wall Street Journal	Covering Science: Worst of Times, Best of Times
April 2, 2013	Jeffrey Kluger, Science Writer for Time magazine	Science as Civilizer
March 13, 2012	Stephen S. Hall, New York Times Magazine writer	Alternate Universes: Different Ways of Thinking about Science – and Science Journalism
April 12, 2011	Michael Waldrop, Nature editor	Lessons My Stories Taught Me
March 16, 2010	Richard Harris, National Public Radio	Covering Climate Change in a Changing Media Climate
March 31, 2009	Tom Siegfried, Science News magazine	Odds Are, It’s Wrong: The Misuse of Math in Science, Medicine, and the Media
March 25, 2008	Alan Boyle, Science Editor for MSNBC.com	Britney Spears vs. Chimps with Spears: Taling about Science in a Tabloid Culture
2007	Robert Krulwich	What a Reporter Learns from Dylan, Coltrane, and Chumbawamba: Journalism as Music
2006	Michael D. Lemonick	Crank or Genius – How Does a Science Writer Tell the Difference?
2005	Jonathan Weiner	On the Writing of His Brother’s Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine
2004	Paula Apsell	What’s Hot, What’s Not in Science Programming
2003	John Rennie	Naysaying the Nincompoops: On Being a Maven in a Misinformed Era
2002	David Quammen	Midnight in the Garden of Fact and Factoid
2001	Sharon Begley	Why Science Journalism Isn’t Science
2000	John Noble Wilford	Science Journalism Across Two Centuries
1999	Robert Kanigel	The Perils of Popularizing Science
1997	Jon Franklin	The End of Science Writing
1996	Jim Detjen	Environmental News: Where Is It Going?
1994	Victor Cohn	Reporting – Good and Bad – on Health in America
1993	Gina Kolata	Medical Reporting: Where the Story Lies
1991	Dorothy Nelkin	Risk Communication and the Mass Media
1989	John Noble Wilford	Science as Exploration