The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies gives science journalists the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of computer-based, data-driven science with a longer stay at the institute. For the first time, the program was announced internationally. Candidates from 22 countries applied. The jury chose the Barcelona-based science journalist Michele Catanzaro.

The Barcelona-based science journalist Michele Catanzaro will be the third, and first international, “Journalist in Residence” at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). For the first time, the program was announced internationally; 36 candidates from 22 countries and 5 continents had applied. A jury consisting of science journalists and scientists from universities, Max Planck Institutes and HITS, selected Michele Catanzaro to be the “HITS Journalist in Residence 2014”. He will come to the institute in the second half of this year.

Catanzaro studied Physics in Rome and subsequently received his doctorate from the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona). Since 2000, he has been working as a freelance science journalist for media in Italy, Spain, Mexico and Great Britain, like magazines and newspapers such as Nature, The Guardian, Physics World, and El Periódico. His main topics of interest are in the area of science and science policy. He writes articles about these topics in four languages, but also produces short documentaries and writes scripts for television. For his work, he received the “King of Spain International Journalism Prize” in 2013, as well as the “BBVA InnovaData” Award for a project in data journalism. Michele Catanzaro wants to use his stay to interact with the scientists at HITS and deepen his knowledge about the increasing amount of data in science.

The jury also chose Larry Krumenaker (USA) as “Journalist in Residence” for 2015. Larry Krumenaker studied Astronomy and received his doctorate in “Science Education” in 2008 from the University of Georgia. He has been working in the area of “Science Writing” for more than 25 years and is especially interested in the public understanding of science.

Since 2012, the “Journalist in Residence” program offers experienced journalists with a focus on science journalism the opportunity to spend a three-month to six-month paid stay at HITS. In this time, journalists can accompany research groups and their publications, implement their own projects and participate in internal colloquia and seminars of HITS researchers.

The renowned German science journalist Volker Stollorz was the first “Journalist in Residence” at HITS in 2012. Stollorz works for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, a weekly high-profile national newspaper in Germany, among others. In 2013, the German freelance TV journalist Pia Grzesiak made intensive use of her stay to look behind the “mountains of data” at HITS.

The HITS was founded in 2010 as a research institute of the non-profit Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTS). At HITS, around 100 scientists from 15 countries work in now ten research groups in areas where large amounts of data are produced and processed – from Astrophysics to Cell Biology. One of the institute’s aims is to make the public more aware of the importance of computer-based, data-driven science, especially in natural sciences.