About the 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 then-named 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

Date of Lecture	Speaker	Speech Title
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: Talking 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”