Washington Post editor visits Imperial

Marty with Prof Antony Bull visiting the Centre for Blast Injury Studies

Marty Baron, Executive Editor of the Washington Post, met with students and staff during a visit to the College last week.

He made the visit to the College’s South Kensington Campus on Wednesday 15 April meeting with a number of academics and students and seeing first hand some of the College’s work.

Baron, Editor of the Washington Post, one of the world’s most respected and influential daily newspapers, took the chance to visit the College during a trip to London.

Marty met with students studying at the College’s Science Communication Unit for an informal discussion on his career in the media, the responsibilities of journalists when reporting science and the future of the newspaper industry.

In the discussion, chaired by Dr Stephen Webster, Head of Imperial’s Science Communication Unit, students pressed Marty for his views on a number of issues ranging from balanced coverage of scientific debates to the effect of ‘click bait’ headlines in online journalism.

Dr Webster said: “Marty is a seasoned journalist having worked as both editor of the Boston Globe and now the Washington Post – the paper famous for exposing Watergate in the 1970’s which led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

“It was great to have him speaking to our students here at the College and sharing some of his experiences with us.”

Marty meets students from the Science Communication Unit

Rachel David, a science writer from Imperial now studying a Masters in Science Communication was one of the students that attended the talk: “The Washington Post is a really famous paper so it was really interesting to hear Marty speak about his role there.”

“I asked a question about new digital focusses in journalism and the consequent potential decline in investigative journalism. It was interesting to hear his thoughts as someone running a long running print publication with a strong digital focus too.”

After meeting the students, Marty took time to speak with some of Imperial’s leading academics to talk about the College’s collaborations and efforts to maximise the societal impact of its work. 

Professor Maggie Dallman, Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships) discussed Imperial’s work as a key partner in London’s new Francis Crick Institute, Professor Yike Guo, Director of the Data Science Institute spoke about the revolutionary potential of big data, whilst Professor Franklin Allen updated Marty on the work of the College’s New Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis. 

Marty was then given a tour of the Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies with Professor Anthony Bull and Major Taff Edwards. Here, he learnt about Imperial’s work to help reduce the risk and minimise the impact of limb loss in conflict zones.