Science Service Becomes Society for Science & the Public (SSP)

Science Service is best known for its magazine, Science News. Published since 1922, Science News has 130,000 paid subscribers.

Science Service long organized the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, which is now the Intel Science Talent Search. Many winners and participants in these competitions have gone on to become professional scientists and educators and six have received the Nobel Prize.

On January 10, 2008, Science Service, changed its name to Society for Science & the Public (SSP).

More than the name was changed, as indicated in a statement issued by the organization. The statement reads, in part:

“SSP will continue to provide the ‘science services’ that our constituents have relied on for nearly nine decades. This exciting organizational change mirrors the escalating importance of issues that our organization was founded to address, and reflects our purpose as a public-serving society,” said Elizabeth Marincola, president of Society for Science & the Public and publisher of Science News.

The Science Service Board of Trustees appointed a volunteer commission of the country’s leaders in science, education, management and scientific publishing to lead a thorough review of the organization. The board, made up of leading scientists including two Nobel laureates, endorsed the commission’s recommendations in late 2006, setting this organizational repositioning in motion.

“A basic scientific framework is essential for all citizens because it enables us to understand and navigate the world around us, from our personal nutrition choices to issues of global importance, such as climate change,” Marincola continued. “As Society for Science & the Public, we have an increasingly important responsibility to actively engage in the national discourse on some of the most pressing issues of our time.”

You can find out more about SSP, Science News and the Intel Science Talent Search and its rules at www.societyforscience.org

Forrest M. Mims III.