Mariette dichristina biography books

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Scientific American, the United States’s oldest continuously published magazine, today announced the appointment of Mariette DiChristina as the eighth and first female editor-in-chief in the magazine’s 164-year history.

DiChristina, formerly the magazine’s executive editor, will oversee the print, Web, and special newsstand editions of both Scientific American and Scientific American Mind from their New York offices. Reflecting upon the historical significance of her promotion, DiChristina wrote in an email that she believes having a female editor-in-chief at Scientific American reflects ideals inherent in science itself. Science, she says, “consists of a diverse array of disciplines and embraces the different interests and viewpoints of people working in those disciplines…. Having a woman as editor-in-chief of Scientific American might encourage people to think, ‘Hey, science could include someone like me.’”

DiChristina’s appointment comes nearly six months after Scientific American laid off more than twenty employees, including editor-in-chief John Rennie and president Steven Yee. Around the same time, in what Portfolio reported as a “major reorganization” of the magazine’s administration, the London-based Nature Publishing Group—a division of Macmillan Publishers—assumed the operation of Scientific American, which had previously operated as an independent entity within the Macmillan hierarchy. Rennie had served Scientific American for twenty years, including the last fifteen as editor-in-chief. DiChristina had been the magazine’s acting editor-in-chief since Rennie’s departure.

Now, with the magazine’s editorial leadership finally established, Scientific American staffers can begin to put the strain of June’s staffing shake-up behind them. “It’s a clear benefit to Scientific American,” DiChristina says. “That lets us move forward mor

MARIETTE DiCHRISTINA is editor in chief and senior vice president of Scientific American. She has been a journalist for more than 25 years.

JOHN HOUTZ is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His books include The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hampton Press, 2002).

JULIA CAMERON is an award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker. Her book The Artist's Way (Tarcher, 2002) has sold almost four million copies worldwide. She is also author of The Writing Diet (Tarcher, 2007).

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ROBERT EPSTEIN is senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and former editor in chief of Psychology Today. Epstein has written several books on creativity, including The Big Book of Creativity Games (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

MARIETTE DiCHRISTINA: Let's start by talking about what has drawn each of you to the study of creativity. What's so fascinating about it?

JOHN HOUTZ: There's so much power in a new idea taking shape and changing the way people live and act. Often the rest of us are in awe, or we are even afraid of a new idea, and sometimes our fears spur us to learn more about it. In addition to what some academics call Big Creativity or “Big C”—profound ideas that sometimes change the world—there is what we call the “little c” type of creativity: the everyday problem solving that we all do. The bottom line is that we'd all like to be more creative. We'd all like to be able to solve our problems in a better way. We don't like being frustrated. We don't like having obstacles in our path.

JULIA CAMERON