Jerry E. Bishop

Jerry E. Bishop was an American author and a former deputy news editor for science, technology, and medicine for the Wall Street Journal. Bishop is co-author with science journalist Michael Waldholz of Genome, The Story of Our Astonishing Attempt to Map All the Genes in the Human Body, published in 1990.

Bishop was born in Dalhart, Texas. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1952. While still in college, he edited a suburban weekly, a small daily published by his father.

Jerry E. Bishop joined the Wall Street Journal in 1955 as a copyreader in the Dallas bureau and was soon promoted to reporter. In 1957, he was transferred to New York as a rewrite man and a year later was assigned to report on medical research. He moved to the Washington, D.C. bureau in 1959 for a year before returning to the New York office for the rest of his career.

He retired in 1996 after covering science and medicine for the Wall Street Journal for 40 years.

As a science reporter, his assignments included covering Antarctic exploration and the U.S. manned space program. In 1989 he gained recognition for his coverage of the controversial "cold fusion" story. Bishop was honored with various awards for his contributions to science journalism and served as a role model for reporters.

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) selected Bishop as the winner of its annual science writing award for 1989.

In 1995, he was elected to lifetime honorary membership in Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

Bishop was also a member of the CASW board for more than two decades and served as CASW president from 1997 to 2006.

Jerry E. Bishop died after a long fight against lung cancer.

Photo credit: Lynne Friedmann.