Bruce Dorminey

Bruce Dorminey at the 2009 Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards (AJOYA) dinner in Paris.

Bruce Dorminey (born March 8, 1959) is an award-winning American science journalist and author who primarily covers aerospace, astronomy and astrophysics. A longtime contributor to Astronomy magazine, since March 2012, he has written a regular tech column for Forbes.com.

He is also a correspondent for Renewable Energy World. A former Hong Kong bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and a former Paris-based technology correspondent for the Financial Times newspaper, he has reported from six continents, he has interviewed at least half a dozen Nobel Prize winners and written about everything from potato blight to dark energy. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System.

Background

Dorminey grew up and attended public schools in the small rural town of Ocilla, Georgia, and is a graduate of Irwin County High School and the University of Washington in Seattle.

Critical Acclaim for Distant Wanderers

Astronomy magazine wrote in its review of "Distant Wanderers":

"Acclaimed science journalist Bruce Dorminey is well known for his engaging and thorough reports from science’s cutting edge. And in his first book, Distant Wanderers … Dorminey hits the mark again with the most up-to-date and complete account of the ongoing hunt for extrasolar planets. Dorminey packs a wealth of timely information into an easily manageable span of just over 200 pages. ... Additionally, each chapter is generously illustrated with photos, graphs, and tables. Perhaps most importantly, Dorminey successfully injects personality into the pages … ." (William Schomaker, Astronomy.com, May, 2002)

Dan Vergano in USA Today wrote that "Distant Wanderers" was:

"A short course in one of the most exciting areas of astronomical discovery lies within Distant Wanderers, The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System … . In short chapters that profile key players in the planet-hunting game, Dorminey tackles the science behind the finds … . He keeps the language simple … . Dorminey lays out the science behind the arguments about whether life exists on those distant locales, once they are discovered, a dispute sure to pick up intensity." (USA Today, November, 2001)

From New Scientist:

"In his timely book, Distant Wanderers, Bruce Dorminey, an award-winning aerospace journalist, takes us on a world tour to meet the astronomers undertaking one of the most fascinating searches of all time: for planets around other suns. The vivid descriptions of their observing vigils in isolated observatories help to give a real sense of discoveries in the making. … this book is a highly worthwhile read and will enable you to appreciate what lies behind each discovery and its significance to our own future." (Ian Morison, New Scientist, February, 2002)

From Sky News:

"Bruce Dorminey is an experienced astronomy and space technology writer, and it shows. This is a well researched and completely up-to-date account of the quest to find planets orbiting other stars. … In many ways, this is a detective story. For half a century, astronomers were convinced that other planets must be out there. But only during the past seven years did they start finding them – and they didn’t find what they expected. It’s a great ongoing saga, and Dorminey tells it well." (Terence Dickinson, Sky News, Vol. 8 (1), May/June, 2002)

Awards

Dorminey was a 1998 winner in the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards (AJOYA) for a Financial Times article on the European Space Agency’s HIPPARCOS mission.

His article entitled "Interstellar Wanderlust" which appeared in Space Times, the magazine of the American Astronautical Society, was shortlisted for Best Propulsion Submission in the 2004 AJOYA awards. His article on the far future of astronomy from space for Space Times, was shortlisted for Best Space Submission in the 2005 AJOYA awards. His Astronomy magazine article on the planet Venus was shortlisted for Best Space Submission in the 2006 AJOYA awards. His article on the planet Mercury which appeared in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's "Mercury" magazine was shortlisted for Best Space Submission in the 2007 AJOYA awards. His article entitled "Physics Up Above" for Physics World magazine, an IOP publication, was shortlisted for Best Space Submission in the 2008 AJOYA awards. And his article entitled "Europe's Space Revolution" on the Herschel/Planck missions for Astronomy magazine was shortlisted for Best Space Submission in the 2009 AJOYA awards.

Bruce Dorminey visiting the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile's Atacama desert during the latter part of the observatory's construction, July 1999.

Science Commmunication

In 1998, Dorminey gave an invited oral presentation on media strategies for communicating SETI at the "SETI in the 21st Century" conference; University of Western Sydney in Australia.

In 2003, Dorminey gave an invited oral presentation on communicating SETI with the general public at the International Astronautical Federation's (IAF) annual meeting in Bremen, Germany

In 2004, Dorminey was a founding team member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Science Communication Focus Group.

In 2010, Dorminey gave an oral presentation at the IAU Commission 55 conference "Communicating Astronomy With the Public 2010" in Cape Town, South Africa, entitled: "The Quest For Context."

Interview Excerpt

In a December 14, 2001 interview he told Space.com: “Whether we are alone in the universe seems to be a sexy topic, but to me the most perplexing questions are the ones that we don’t yet have the means to adequately address. I’m particularly interested in how the structure of the cosmos affects our existence. … Before I started covering astronomy, I found a cloudless sky to be a little overwhelming. I was trying too hard to wrap my mind around it on a human scale. Today, I know more about what’s up there and simply try to accept the fact that (in my lifetime at least) much of it will remain incomprehensible.”

Early career

Dorminey began his print journalism career in 1988 in New York and then began reporting from Europe, primarily as a film and arts correspondent, mostly for newspaper outlets such as the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Dallas Morning News and Canada's Globe and Mail; interviewing film, music and literary luminaries like Roy Orbison, Gregory Peck, Dirk Bogarde, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, Richard Ford, D.M. Thomas, Michael Frayn, Oliver Stone, Saul Zaentz, David Puttnam, Gary Sinise, Agnieska Holland, Hanif Kureishi, Mira Nair, Michael Ondaatje, Peter Gallagher, Juliette Binoche, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, Sophie Marceau, Jeremy Irons. Lasse Hallstrom, Natasha Richardson, Michael Wincott, Amanda Donahoe and Jacqueline Bisset.

In 1989, he covered the Cannes Film Festival for the Boston Globe and in 1992, for the Dallas Morning News and Elle magazine. In 1995, he covered the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankyla, Finland for the Dallas Morning News. While in Europe, he frequently visited on location sets to do production stories on films such as Memphis Belle and The English Patient. He also covered arts events like Warsaw's International Chopin Competition (for Canada's Globe & Mail) and the Istanbul Jazz Festival (for the Financial Times).

While in Europe, he occasionally wrote political and business-related stories; in the process interviewing Donald Johnston, the then Secretary-General of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for Australia's Business Review Weekly (BRW) as well as former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for Canada's Globe & Mail, shortly after Boutros-Ghali's return to Paris from New York.

Recent career

Since 2010, he has contributed to Scientific American.com, ScienceNOW (the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) online news service), Universe Today.com, Nature News online, Cosmos (magazine), Physics World, Smithsonian magazine online, Yale Environment 360.com , Pacific Standard magazine online, Miller-McCune.com, Climate Central.com and The Daily Climate.com. He currently contributes to Astronomy magazine and Sky & Telescope magazine. He has been a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

External links