Announcing Next Week's Bloggers: A "Third Culture" Group

Well, it was a tough decision. There were a lot of great ideas, suggestions, and proposals about who to have blog here next week in my absence. In fact, there were so many good ideas that I'm going to invite some folks who are not stepping up to the plate this time around to come back and do it the next time I go off on some wild vacation somewhere.

But for the current opening, a theme was clearly emerging among the possible bloggers I considered: the "third culture," a concept of John Brockman's. When I think "third culture," I think of people who are involved in science but not just science--they combine it with art, with policy work, with music, with pop culture in some way. You might say that Seed magazine itself is the epitome of a "third culture" publication.

And my bloggers this week are the epitome of "third culture" intellectuals. Our lead blogger will be Sheril Kirshenbaum, an associate at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions who specializes in ocean and coastal policy, and worked on Capitol Hill in the office of Florida Senator Bill Nelson. Not only is Sheril trained in marine biology; she also has experience in pop radio. Her full bio is here.

Sheril will be the chief blogger here next week, but I'm also bringing in two other talented young science-policy thinkers to deliver a one-two punch on Thursday and Friday: Drs. Mark Drapeau and Bryan Mignone, authors of a fascinating April 22 Washington Times op-ed, entitled "Climate of Subtle Conflict," that reframed global warming as a national security issue. A bit more about them:

Dr. Mark Drapeau has a B.S. and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Rochester and the University of California - Irvine, respectively. His doctoral research focused on the genetic control of animal behavior. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in neuroscience at New York University prior to moving to Washington DC. Dr. Drapeau is currently a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University of the U.S. Department of Defense.You can read more of his bio here; you can email him at drapeaum@ndu.edu.

Dr. Bryan Mignone holds an A.B. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in geosciences from Princeton University. His doctoral work examined several key aspects of the science and policy of global climate change, and he was previously a Graduate Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Currently, Dr. Mignone is a Science and Technology Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. You can read some of his publications here; you can email him at bmignone@brookings.edu.

So as you can see, we're going to have some talented contributors. Sheril, Mark, and Bryan will also be posting and moderating comments; they're aware of the comments policy. That policy says you're allowed to insult me in any way you want, but not allowed to insult anyone else--including our guest bloggers. Please treat them with the utmost respect, and again, if you feel you have something nasty to say, aim it at me rather than at them.

I'm sure you will all do me proud.

And now, feel free to use the comments section to welcome our guest bloggers.....and expect a first post from Sheril soon enough. Until I leave, she and I might find ourselves posting kinda simultaneously, to ease the transition.

P.S.: I'm also working on bringing on a storm tracking blogger in case the hurricanes start doing anything interesting (or worrisome)....