IEEE-USA engineering mass media fellow begins reporting on sci-tech at Voice of America
WASHINGTON (23 June 2010) — IEEE-USA Engineering Mass Media Fellow Smitha Raghunathan has begun her 10-week media internship preparing news stories on science, engineering and technology in Washington at the Voice of America.
Raghunathan has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and recently earned her master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. She served this past year as social chair of Wake Forest’s IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society student branch.
Raghunathan has “a natural gift for communication and social interaction,” wrote Dr. Jessica Sparks, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech-Wake Forest, in her recommendation letter for her student’s Mass Media Fellow application.
Raghunathan has spoken on her graduate research into liver tissue modeling as a volunteer at high schools near Winston-Salem, N.C. She also volunteers at an animal adoption and rescue organization.
Since 2000, 13 U.S. IEEE undergraduate and graduate students have served as IEEE-USA Mass Media Fellows, helping journalists in print and broadcast fields communicate authoritatively to the public about science, engineering and technology.
IEEE-USA is the only engineering organization in the Mass Media Fellows program, which is administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2009, 12 AAAS Fellows produced more than 285 original sci-tech stories in print and broadcast media.
