STATEWIDE – Patrick Regan, NJN Public Television and Radio senior correspondent for science and technology, was named a finalist by the National Academies for the 2004 National Academies Communication Awards. Regan was chosen in the TV/Radio category for his role in “Science and Technology Report,” which airs every Wednesday and Friday on NJN News. In this national competition, NJN was the only local media organization represented among the winners and finalists in all categories.

In “Science and Technology Report,” Regan covers news about scientific discovery, innovations in technology, and math and science education, inviting viewers inside New Jersey’s academic and industrial labs and offering insight into a wide range of issues.
The National Academies Communications Award is a prestigious national prize given annually for excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, technology, medicine, and/or interdisciplinary research to the general public. Candidates include authors, journalists, and producers who have demonstrated excellence in communicating these topics through print, Internet, radio, or television. Winners and finalists were selected from 143 entries in the categories of TV/Radio, Book, and Newspaper/Magazine/Internet. In the TV/Radio category, the winners were producers for the Science Channel; the other finalists were a reporter for National Public Radio and producers for the Discovery Channel and Nova.

The National Academies, located in Washington, D.C., bring together committees of experts in all areas of scientific and technological endeavor. The Academies comprise the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

Regan also has hosted NJN’s program Inside Science, a series that explored topics, trends, and developments in science and technology through interviews and roundtable discussions with leading New Jersey-based scientists, engineers, and educators.

Prior to joining NJN in 2001, Regan was employed by Lucent Technologies, where he served as a science and technology writer, magazine editor, and spokesperson for Bell Labs. His work at Lucent, AT&T, and Bellcore immersed him in fields such as physics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, information theory, microelectronics, data networking, Internet security, wireless and optical communications, and software engineering.

Regan’s published writing includes “NASA’s Mission Reliable,” which he co-authored for the January 2004 issue of Computer magazine, and Exploring the Little Rivers of New Jersey, which he helped to augment and revise for its fourth edition (1993, Rutgers University Press). He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a New York Times professional fellow.
Regan received a bachelor of arts degree in American literature from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a resident of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

Major funding for NJN News is made possible by PSE&G, Wachovia, Verizon, the New Jersey Education Association, The University Hospital, the New Jersey City University, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

NJN News is streamed on NJN’s website www.njn.net and broadcast on NJN’s Jersey Vision, the Network’s digital channel. This program is close captioned.