October 21, 2010
Invited Professor at the Information and Communication Department of Laval University, where he holds the Bell Globemedia Chair in Science Journalism, Jean-Marc Fleury is Executive Director of the World Federation of Science Journalists. A pioneer of science journalism at Québec City’s newspaper Le Soleil and then Editor-in-Chief at the monthly Québec Science, Jean-Marc Fleury then worked at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). From 1976 to 2006, he was science writer, editor-in-chief, trainer in science journalism, liaison officer (Senegal), and eventually Director of Communications. Throughout his career, he was recipient of numerous prizes for magazine articles on health, agriculture and the environment. Always an active player within the science journalism community, he was also a founding member of the Québec Association of Science Communicators. The Association awarded him its 2007 Recognition Award for his overall contribution to science journalism. He recently completed a $2 million, three-year project that trained some 60 science journalists and led to the establishment of a dozen associations of science journalists in Africa and the Middle East.