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Dedicated profs win president’s media awards
Two of 2011’s biggest news stories were the meltdown last March of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant following an earthquake and tsunami and the “Arab Spring” uprisings that shook the Middle East.
Both stories set the world’s media scrambling for articulate experts to provide analysis, context and comment.
And in both crises, SFU faculty members—professors Krzysztof (Kris) Starosta during the Fukushima crisis and André Gerolymatos during the Arab Spring insurrections—went to extraordinary lengths to meet the media’s needs.
For their efforts, Starosta and Gerolymatos have both been recognized with this year’s President’s Award for Service Through Public Affairs and Media Relations.
The annual award is given to one or more faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the university by contributing their knowledge and understanding through media and other public relations activities.
Says SFU President Andrew Petter: “The university recognizes their valuable contributions to the on-going work of enhancing the public profile of the university through sharing their expertise with the greater community.”
Krzysztof Starosta
Starosta had never appeared in the media before the Fukushima meltdown. But the associate professor of chemistry was quick to provide his radiation expertise and experience, even shelving his regular research to investigate the prevalence of ionizing radiation in BC’s rainfall.
He then led a news conference discussing his research into Fukushima’s radioactive fallout in BC, and subsequently spent many days fielding reporters’ questions from around the world, resulting in dozens of news stories in which both he and SFU were cited.
“He became a trusted authority on the situation, and calmed the public’s fears about exposure to ionizing radiation,” says award nominator Kate Scheel, an SFU radiation safety advisor.
“He put his scientific knowledge and his lab at the service of the community during a period when the province crucially needed it,” adds Abderrachid Zitouni, provincial radiation specialist with the BC Centre for Disease Control.
André Gerolymatos
History professor Gerolymatos is a veteran commentator whose historical knowledge of issues in the Middle East and elsewhere has made him a trusted source on international terrorism and security, including the Arab world’s geopolitical, financial and religious tensions.
His appointment last year to the Prime Minister’s National Security Council sparked more media appearances and interviews (60) than ever. As well, he penned more articles for the press than in any other year of his academic career.
Gerolymatos also organized several public roundtable discussions on important world events, most notably a discussion on “The New Face of the Middle East”, which appeared live online around the world through Global TV’s website.
“It is no easy thing to cultivate long-term positive and fruitful relationships with media,” says Vancouver Sun vice-president, digital, Patricia Graham, “and Dr. Gerolymatos has excelled at this.”
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