Ernest Urvater - Producer, Writer, Editor
Ernie has specialized for years in transforming complex information into understandable and accessible television.
This may have something to do with his background: a B.A. in English literature landed him a copy writing and media buying job at a New York ad agency. But 10 years later, having become curious about science, he earned a Ph.D. in physics and did post-doctoral research in elementary particles at Brookhaven National Laboratory. As an associate professor of physics at Colorado State University, Ernie specialized in bridging the two-cultures gap between science and the humanities. As principal investigator for several large multi-year projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services, Ernie designed and directed a number of programs to bring science education to under-served student populations.
When an Exxon Education Foundation grant allowed him to try his hand at making videotapes on energy literacy, he saw an opportunity to make use of both sides of his brain, and got hooked on television production.
Since then he has gone on to produce programs in science, medicine, art, music, education, economics, social science, and environmental pollution. His Troubled Waters: Plastic in the Marine Environment won a Gold Medal for Best Environmental Program at the Canadian Waterwalker Film and Video Festival, and aired on PBS stations around the country.Ernie has produced a number of programs for educational institutions. His versatile Age of Polymers, was used by the University of Massachusetts not only to recruit students into its graduate level Polymer Science Program, but also to stimulate cooperative research programs between the university and industry, and to raise funds for its $57 million National Polymer Research Center. A version of Polymers was also produced for a Japanese audience.
Most recently Ernie has produced Angles of a Landscape, a three-DVD series created in cooperation with the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst.