About the Author

Deborah L. Illman is Assistant to the Vice Provost for Research and serves on the faculty of the Department of Technical Communications in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. She is a former Associate Editor of Chemical & Engineering News, the official weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. Illman holds a doctorate in chemistry, as well as a bachelor of science in chemistry (UW '76). She is a former associate director of a UW research consortium, and served as a Science, Engineering, and Diplomacy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1988-89. Illman conducts research on issues in media coverage of science, and teaches courses on science and engineering writing.