WATERLOO, Ontario, Canada, June 27, 2011 – Several Perimeter Institute members and colleagues join over 700 delegates at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2011 (WCSJ) in Doha, Qatar this week. The conference, occurring every two years, provides leading international science communicators with an opportunity to engage prominent researchers and decision makers who are working on cutting edge scientific ideas and technologies. At the same time, journalists and public information officers can also attend workshops to enhance their own reporting skills, tools and techniques.

• Let’s Get Physical, a panel session exploring some of the “best stories” from physics and how to report them. Raymond Laflamme, a founding member and Associate Faculty member at Perimeter Institute and Executive Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), will share insights with journalists on the latest theories and experiments in quantum mechanics that may be newsworthy in the short, medium and long term.
• Science as a Force for Change: Africa, a plenary session on major problems facing Africa today and how science, education and science journalism might enable Africans to help address those problems from within. This panel activity, produced by Lisa Lambert, Manager of External Relations and Public Affairs at Perimeter Institute, includes Barry Green of AIMS-South Africa, PI’s Suzanne Corbeil, and Ochieng' Ogodo of SciDev.net in Kenya with short presentations, a panel discussion and Q&A with reporters.
• Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 – Roadmap for Energy Technology, is a session that provides outcomes of a recent international gathering on the topic of electricity production, distribution and storage. Summit Moderator Wilson da Silva of COSMOS Magazine will share recommendations outlined in the Equinox Communiqué, a document that identifies scientific and technological approaches, as well as implementation steps, with the potential to help accelerate the world’s transition towards a low-carbon, electrified future. This session is co-produced with the Waterloo Global Science Initiative, a non-profit partnership between Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo, and the presentation will also include Julie Wright, WGSI Coordinator.

Perimeter Institute’s outreach and communication team has a proud tradition of partnership with the World Conference of Science Journalists as well as the overseeing World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), which represents 38 national, regional or international associations of science journalists. The mission of the WFSJ is to provide a bridge between science, scientists and the public as well as  promote the role of science journalists as key players in civil society and democracy.

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) is an independent, non-profit, scientific research organization working to advance our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, PI also provides a wide array of research training and educational outreach activities to nurture scientific talent and share the importance of discovery and innovation among students, teachers and the general public. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, PI is a successful example of public-private collaboration in scientific research, training and outreach.

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca