Hampshire Student Receives Earl Ubell Grant To Support Div III Thesis

Named to honor the memory of Earl Ubell, whose distinguished career has influenced generations of science writers, the grant program recognizes and supports exceptional student work that seeks to make the scientific method or scientific findings accessible to nonscientists.

Condron's Division III faculty committee is botany professor Lawrence Winship and law and anthropology professor Jennifer Hamilton.

Condron, Hampshire 10F, will use the grant funds to finance his research and self-publish the project.

“I am so grateful for this award and the acknowledgment of my work,” says Condron. “Cannabis is becoming more accepted, yet misconceptions persist. This grant will help me disseminate an academic analysis of medical cannabis use that engages the policies and rhetoric that perpetuate prohibition today.”

Earl Ubell began his career at the New York Herald Tribune as a messenger and rose to science editor, a position he held from 1953 to 1966 before transferring to the then-new medium of television. He was health science editor for WCBS-TV from 1966 to 1972, and from 1978 to 1995. He served as the news director for WNBC-TV News from 1972 to 1976.

Ubell covered such notable events as the first Sputnik flight in 1961 and the first U.S. manned space flight in 1962. He carried out scientific research at major laboratories, and was the author of eight books (one co-authored). His numerous awards for journalism, medical reporting and science writing include an Emmy in 1970 for the New York area of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Donald Salmon Award for significant contribution to development of the arts in that same year. Ubell died in 2007 at age 80.

Hampshire College alumnus, and the son of Earl Ubell, Michael C. Ubell 70F established the grant program in honor of his father.