Page:The impact of science on society.pdf/37
Jules Bergman
As the first full-time television network science editor in the US, ABC News Science Editor Jules Bergman covered all 37 manned flights in the US space program, beginning with the original seven Mercury astronauts and the Space Task Group at NASA Langley Research Center. He frequently participated in the astronauts' rigorous training programs and flight simulations. He also covered the historic US-USSR joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the fall of the American Skylab. In the 1960's, when the US was deeply involved in its emerging space program, Bergman's reports were the main source of information on this subject for many Americans. A pilot himself, Bergman has also covered the first flights of almost every new US military and commercial aircraft as well as major airline disasters around the world.
In the 1970's, Bergman turned more of his attention to documentary work, winning an Emmy Award for his contributions as co-writer and narrator of the ABC documentary Closeup on Fire. He has written and narrated documentary programs dealing with the energy crisis, sports injuries, aircraft and automobile safety, the hazards of asbestos, and nuclear power. In the spring of 1979 Bergman contributed to ABC's coverage of the nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island.
In the field of medicine, Bergman covered the beginning of the transplant era as well as various new developments in cancer treatment. More recently he reported on the swine flu controversy and the "legionnaire's disease" mystery for both the ABC Evening News and ABC's Good Morning America. He occasionally hosts ABC's Sunday afternoon interview program Issues and Answers, questioning guests from the fields of science and space. Bergman has won many awards for scientific journalism and has written numerous articles on space and science for such magazines as Readers' Digest, The New York Times Magazine, and Esquire. He is a native of New York City and attended City College of New York, Indiana University, and Columbia College. He completed postgraduate studies at Columbia University, where he held a Sloan-Rockefeller Advanced Science Writing Fellowship.