Name Doron Weber | Role Author | |
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Books Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir, The Complete Guide to Living Wills: How to Safeguard Your Treatment Choices | ||
Doron weber on support for the dpla dpla midwest 2012
Doron Weber (born 1955) is an American author best known for his memoir, Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir, and a foundation executive. Born on a kibbutz in Israel in 1955, Weber is a graduate of Brown University (B.A., 1977) and studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford University (M.A., 1981), where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has held positions at the Readers Catalog, Society for the Right to Die, The Rockefeller University, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where he has created seminal programs in science and the arts. Weber has worked as a newspaper boy, busboy, waiter, and taxi driver, has competed as a boxer and triathlete, and, in the summer of 2012, biked 3400 miles in the Big Ride Across America.
Contents
- Doron weber on support for the dpla dpla midwest 2012
- The Open Mind The Story of Science Doron Weber
- Immortal Bird
- Alfred P Sloan Foundation Work
- Awards
- Other Civic Work
- Personal life
- Publications
- References
The Open Mind: The Story of Science - Doron Weber
Immortal Bird
Weber’s memoir, Immortal Bird, the portrait of a teenager’s short, vibrant life and the relationship between father and son, documents the family’s navigation of the complex medical journey of Doron and Shealagh Weber’s first child, Damon, who was born in 1988 with a congenital heart defect. The defect, a single ventricle, was successfully repaired, allowing him to lead a remarkably full life until he developed new complications as a teen. When he was 16½, Damon received a successful heart transplant but then died of a post-transplant infection that was misdiagnosed as organ rejection and left untreated. The family brought suit in 2006 against New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center where their son was a patient but, as of 2013, the suit remains unresolved. In addition to being named by The Washington Post as one of “50 Notable Works of Non-Fiction” for 2012, Immortal Bird was listed as Amazon’s Best Book of the Month, on February 2012 Indie NEXT List, and was one of nine official selections of the 2013 Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the oldest book club in America. The paperback was published in February, 2013.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Work
Since 1995, Weber has worked as a program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization that supports research and education in science, technology, and economic performance. As Vice President, Programs, Weber runs the Public Understanding of Science and Technology Program where he pioneered the synergistic use of media and the arts to translate science for the public. He has launched national programs in theater, film and television that commission, develop, produce, and distribute new work bridging the two cultures of science and the humanities. Grantees include Manhattan Theatre Club, Sundance Film Institute, National Geographic Television, PBS, National Public Radio, BAM, and World Science Festival. Weber also directs the Foundation's efforts to promote Universal Access to Knowledge by using emerging developments in digital information technology to make the benefits of human knowledge and human culture accessible to people everywhere. Grantees include Library of Congress, Internet Archive, Wikimedia Foundation, Harvard University and Digital Public Library of America. In 2012, Weber made a grant for a pilot meeting on rice science at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy that brought together scientists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and China.
Awards
In 2004, the Sloan Foundation received the National Science Board's Public Service Award, citing Weber's program "for its innovative use of traditional media—books, radio, public television--and its pioneering efforts in theater and commercial television and films to advance public understanding of science and technology”. On behalf of the Foundation, he accepted the PBS Leadership Award for over a decade of support; the Nielsen Impact Award for Film from the Hollywood Reporter (2009); the Council of Foundation citation for “the visionary funding decisions of foundations in using media for their program goals” for a new web series, The Secret Life of Scientists (2010); and the Gold Communicator Award for a documentary about the Foundation’s history, “Sloan at 75” (2011). His work at Sloan has been profiled in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Fortune, Filmmaker Magazine, and The American Way.
Other Civic Work
Weber serves as President of The Writers Room Board of Trustees, Vice Chair of the Digital Public Library of America Steering Committee, Advisory Board Member of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, and Board Visitor of the Wikimedia Foundation. From 1995-2005, he served as secretary of the New York State Committee for the Rhodes Scholarships. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Club.
Personal life
Weber is married to Shealagh Alison Macleod De Bourges Day Rosenthal, they live in Brooklyn, New York. Macleod is the eldest daughter of German entrepreneur, artist and politician Philip Rosenthal and the Granddaughter of Philipp Rosenthal. Macleod grew up in Selb, Germany where her father ran Rosenthal China, a widely popular upscale porcelain company that collaborated alongside many artists including; Andy Warhol, Walter Gropius, Bjørn Wiinblad and Salvador Dalí. Macleod has roots in the Scottish Island, Skye. Macleod is also the great niece of playwright Clarence Day. The two met while attending Exeter College, Oxford. They have three children, Damon, Sam, and Miranda Weber. The couples oldest child, Damon died in 2005 due to post heart transplant complications, his illness is detailed in Weber's memoir.