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| from thecelebrationshoppe.com |
I want to sincerely thank
everyone who voted and helped to spread the word in support of Escaping Anergy
for the 2011 Blogging Scholarship! This year, Escaping Anergy competed against
blogs about the NBA, baseball, religion, shark conservation, paleontology, tech
gadgets and traveling at the chance to win the 2011
Blogging Scholarship awarded to full-time students who blog. Being
relatively new to blogging, I was ecstatic to have such amazing support from my
family and friends, The University of Maryland, fellow science bloggers and
science enthusiasts! Although Escaping Anergy lost the ultimate prize (by only
a few hundred votes!) I honestly believe that I wouldn’t have made it as far as
I did without your amazing support! Being able to earn First Runner-Up has
propelled Escaping Anergy into a bigger public arena, which I hope will enable
it to be seen, discussed and further supported by more of the public. The
greatest result of this scholarship adventure has been the chance to advocate
for better public science and health education. Coming in a close second has
revealed that much of the public (at least those who read blogs) craves to have
a more in-depth understanding about the biology behind critical health concerns
and disease.
Throughout this scholarship process,
I have received numerous e-mails, tweets and blog posts that not only
positively acclaim the work I’ve done so far on Escaping Anergy, but also have
asked for more information about particular aspects of immunology that may
directly affect their lives. I am genuinely
excited so many people have discovered their interest in immunology through
Escaping Anergy! It was a truly amazing experience to receive so much
positive feedback and messages describing your interest to learn more about
immunology during this process and I hope to continue to hear from you!
For these reasons, I am so proud
to see Escaping Anergy play a role in enhancing the public’s interest in
immunology! Is there an immunology research paper you found that you’d like to
see further explained? Are you an immunology/med student who has a question as
you prepare for your immunology exam? Is there an immune-based therapy you’d
like to know more about and the research behind it? Did you read a health news
story that mentions the immune system and would like to learn more? I hope you
continue to help spread the word about Escaping Anergy and I look forward to
receiving more e-mails, tweets and posts about how understanding immunology
affects your life and what you would like to see discussed on Escaping Anergy!
Lastly and Very Importantly: an extra special thanks to…
David Shiffman and Jacquelyn Gill who continuously advocated for improved science education as fellow
finalists for the Blogging Scholarship. They are fantastic science bloggers and
I hope with our combined effort, the public has greater appreciation and
support for a variety of scientific issues! A recap of all the science bloggers
who were selected as finalists for the scholarship can be found here.
Christie Wilcox of Science Sushi (and winner of the 2010 Blogging Scholarship) who promoted all the
science bloggers up for the 2011 prize and offered generous words and support
for Escaping Anergy on her Scientific American blog:
“It’s not easy to make immunology engaging and interesting, but Heather does a fantastic job of it. She clearly has a passion for what she does, and loves to share it with others. She hopes that her blog will help connect the general public to a field that is often overhyped and misinterpreted – and I’d say she’s off to a damn good start.”
Mike at GlutenZap.com for helping to spread the word and support for Escaping Anergy for the
Blogging Scholarship:
“I've had the recent pleasure of exchanging email with Heather Cohen of The Escaping Anergy blog… Folks like Heather, Her interest in immunology and Her passion about these kinds of issues are the ones that can make a big difference in finding cures for so many diseases in my opinion.”
Aaron Broege of The Sensitive Scientist, who provided constant support for Escaping Anergy
during the scholarship process and did a fantastic job at helping to spread the
word:
"If you like your science served up awesome, vote for Heather's Blog!"
Tom
McCaughtry, fellow immunologist who helped to rally votes and provided constant
support for the need of a blog devoted to immunology research, commenting on PZ
Meyers' post “A
Poll with a Point”:
“Heather Cohen writes an extremely interesting blog that communicates scientific research to the public. She doesn’t dumb down the science like some of the other “news” sources, but she makes it simple enough for anybody to understand!”
Heather