Wilson da Silva

Wilson da Silva (science writer)
Born Brazil
Occupation Journalist/Editor
Nationality Australian/Portuguese/Brazilian

Wilson da Silva is an Australian science writer, publisher and documentary filmmaker who has worked in magazines, newswires, newspapers, television and online. He is a co-founder and the long-serving former editor-in-chief of Cosmos, Australia's No. 1 science magazine in print, iPad and online. After departing as editor-in-chief of Cosmos in 2013, he has stated that he plans to "sit back and either get back into films or maybe write some books."[1]

He has been an on-air science reporter and producer for Australian Broadcasting Corporation television, a staff journalist on The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, a foreign correspondent for Reuters, science editor of ABC Online, a correspondent for London's New Scientist magazine, and served as managing editor of the science magazines Newton, 21C and Science Spectra.[2]

He was the founding Content Director of the Waterloo Global Science Initiative, and Moderator of Equinox Summit: Energy 2030, the inaugural meeting at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada that sought to apply science and technology to global problems.[3] From 2006–09, he was the founding editor-in-chief of the Green Lifestyle Magazine, an environmental consumer lifestyle title that was the country's first carbon neutral magazine and produced on 100% recycled paper.

He is the creator of HELLO FROM EARTH, a web-based initiative to send messages from the public, each just 160 characters in length, to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside the Solar System. Created as a science communication exercise for 2009 National Science Week in Australia, it collected nearly 26,000 messages that were beamed by NASA's Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex on 28 August 2009.[4]

The winner of 31 awards, including Editor of the Year (twice – in 2006 and 2005, Publishers Australia Excellence Awards), the 1997 Human Rights Award for Print Journalism and the 1996 Michael Daley Award for Science Journalism. He has also written and produced two prize-winning documentaries, including The Diplomat, the film that depicted Nobel Peace laureate José Ramos-Horta and his eventually successful struggle to win independence for East Timor. The film won da Silva and fellow producer Sally Browning the 2000 AFI Award for Best Documentary (Australian Film Institute).

A past president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, he is a former president of the Australian Science Communicators and of The Australian Museum Society, and has served on the board of the Australian Society of Authors. He is one of the founders of Science in the Pub, an innovative public communication initiative which was awarded the 2000 Eureka Prize for the Promotion of Science.

In October 2009, da Silva created and hosted six Science in the Pub sessions for the Quantum to Cosmos festival at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, and also hosted two Quantum to Cosmos panels. In his opening panel, he asked nine physicists, "what keeps you awake at night?"[5]

He makes frequent appearances on radio and television in Australia, including breakfast TV shows Sunrise and Today, and has spoken at many public lectures and conferences, among them the UNESCO World Science Forum, the EuroScience Open Forum and Japan's annual Science and Technology in Society Forum. He is scheduled to be among the first passengers of Virgin Galactic's space service when flights begin in 2014 or 2015. Born in Brazil of Portuguese ancestry, he now lives in Sydney.

Filmography

Australian Broadcasting Corp

Year TV Show Story Role Duration
2004 Catalyst Baroness and the Brain Reporter 5:11
2000 Quantum Roman Theatre Producer, writer, presenter 4:41
2000 Quantum Mirror Matter Producer, writer, presenter 7:55
2000 Quantum Bomb Snooper Producer, writer, presenter 4:50
1999 Quantum The Computer CSIRAC Producer, writer, presenter 5:15
1999 Quantum Frog Killer Producer, writer, presenter 4:41
1999 Quantum Empty Pouches Producer, writer, presenter 6:48
1999 Quantum Mining the Deep Producer, writer, presenter 6:31
1999 Quantum Oils Ain't Oils Reporter 7:44
1999 Quantum Dying Eyes Producer, writer, presenter 7:18
1999 Quantum Baby Skin Writer, presenter 4:57
1999 Quantum' Malaria Vaccine Co-Producer, writer, presenter 5:03
1999 Quantum Requiem for the Toothfish Producer, writer, presenter 9:15
1999 Quantum Planet Hunters Co-Producer, writer, presenter 9:03
1999 Quantum Can You Catch a Heart Attack? Co-Producer, writer, presenter 7:38
1999 Quantum Electron Man Writer, presenter 7:54
1999 Quantum Cosmic Antigravity Producer, writer, presenter 9:07
1998 Quantum Troubled Waters Producer, writer, presenter 10:01
1998 Quantum' Girl Talk Writer, presenter 6:08
1998 Quantum Premature Concerns Writer, presenter 9:58
1998 Quantum Roman Lead Producer, writer, presenter 6:53
1998 Quantum Thorium Reactors Writer, presenter 7:17
1998 Quantum Male Contraceptive Writer, presenter 5:46
1998 Quantum Landscape Archaeology Writer, presenter 9:22
1998 Quantum Mind's Eye Writer, presenter 9:40
1998 Quantum Passing the Bug: The End of Antibiotics? Co-Producer, writer, presenter 27:30

Independent Documentaries

Year Film Role Notes Duration
2000 The Diplomat Producer & Writer Documentary centred on Nobel Peace Prize-winner José Ramos-Horta and his 24-year struggle to liberate of East Timor from occupation by Indonesia. Feature 81 mins, other 56 mins

Awards

Year Category Awards Publication/Program Result Nominees
2012 Best App on Mobile or Tablet Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine – iPad edition Runner-up Heather Catchpole, Lucy Glover, Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2010 Editor of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Highly Commended Wilson da Silva
2009 Magazine of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2009 Best Consumer Magazine Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2009 Best Digital Engagement Strategy Publishers Australia Excellence Awards HELLO FROM EARTH Winner Wilson da Silva, Dean Turnbull, John Pickerel and Heather Catchpole
2008 Lord Mayor's Sustainability Award City of Sydney Business Awards Cosmos Media Pty Ltd Winner Kylie Ahern and Wilson da Silva
2008 Environmental Business Award City of Sydney Business Awards Cosmos Media Pty Ltd Winner Kylie Ahern and Wilson da Silva
2008 Sustainability in Publishing Publishers Australia Excellence Awards Cosmos Media Pty Ltd Winner Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2007 Consumer Magazine of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards G: The Green Lifestyle Magazine Winner Sara Phillips, Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2006 Editor of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva
2006 Best Opinion Series Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva
2006 Magazine of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2006 Best Consumer Magazine Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva and Kylie Ahern
2012 Best Publisher Publishers Australia Excellence Awards Cosmos Media Pty Ltd Winner Kylie Ahern, Wilson da Silva and Alan Finkel
2005 Editor of the Year Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva
2005 Best Consumer Magazine Cover Publishers Australia Excellence Awards COSMOS Magazine Winner Rodney Lochner, Frank Linden and Wilson da Silva
2001 Rudolf Vrba Award One World Film Festival, Prague The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
2001 Margrit & Robert Mondavi Prize California Wine Country Film Festival The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
2000 AFI Award for Best Documentary Australian Film Institute The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
2000 Eureka Prize for Promotion of Science Australian Museum Eureka Prizes Science in the Pub Winner Robyn Stutchbury, Michael Burton, Paul Willis and Wilson da Silva
2000 Austcare Media Award Austcare Awards The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
2000 Bronze Award International Medical Film Competition Passing the Bug: The End of Antibiotics? Winner Wilson da Silva and Richard Corfield
2000 Golden Maile Award Hawaii International Film Festival The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
2000 Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Real Life on Film Festival The Diplomat Winner Sally Browning and Wilson da Silva
1998 Medical Research Journalism Award Australasian Medical Research Journalism Awards Passing the Bug: The End of Antibiotics? Highly Commended Wilson da Silva and Richard Corfield
1997 Human Rights Award for Print Journalism Human Rights Awards Australian Financial Review Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva
1996 Michael Daley Award for Science Journalism Michael Daley Awards for Science, Technology and Engineering Journalism The Age Winner Wilson da Silva
1996 George Munster Award for Freelance Journalism Australian Centre for Independent Journalism The Age Winner Wilson da Silva
1996 Excellence in Biotechnology Journalism Amgen Awards 21C Magazine Winner Wilson da Silva
1996 Human Rights Award for Print Journalism Human Rights Awards The Age Highly Commended Wilson da Silva
1992 Journalism Award Royal Australian Chemical Institute Awards Reuters Winner Wilson da Silva

References

  1. ↑ "The Skeptic Zone #245" (Podcast). Richard Saunders. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  2. ↑ da Silva, Wilson (February 2009). "Profile of a Science Journalist: Wilson da Silva, Editor of COSMOS". Cosmos. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  3. ↑ "The Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 Team". Waterloo Global Science Initiative. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. ↑ "About Us". Cosmos. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  5. ↑ "Speakers". Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Archived from the original on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
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