Jules Bergman
Reporter, ABC
As the first full-time television network science editor in the United States, ABC News Science Editor Jules Bergman covered all of the first 37 manned flights in the U.S. space program, beginning with the original seven Mercury astronauts and the Space Task Group at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.
Bergman frequently participated in the astronauts’ rigorous training programs and flight simulations. He also covered the historic U.S./U.S.S.R. joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the re-entry of the American Skylab.
In the 1960s while the U.S. was deeply involved in its emerging space program, Bergman reports were the main source of information on this subject for many Americans. A pilot himself, Bergman also covered the first flights of almost every new U.S. military and commercial aircraft as well as major airline disasters around the world.
In the 1970s, Bergman turned more of his attention to documentary work, winning an Emmy Award for his contributions as co-writer and narrator of the ABC documentary “Closeup on Fire”. He wrote and narrated documentary programs dealing with the energy crisis, sports injuries, aircraft and automobile safety, the hazards of asbestos and nuclear power. In the spring of 1979, Bergman contributed to ABC’s coverage of the nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island.
In the field of medicine, Bergman covered the beginning of the transplant era, as well as, various new developments in cancer treatment. Toward the end of his career he reported on the swine flu controversy and the Legionaires’ disease mystery for both the ABC “Evening News” and ABC’s “Good Morning America”. He occasionally hosted ABC’s Sunday afternoon interview program “Issues and Answers”, questioning guests primarily from the fields of science and medicine.
Bergman won many awards for scientific journalism and wrote numerous articles on space and science for such magazines as Reader’s Digest, the New York Times Magazine and Esquire.
He was a native of New York City and attended City College of New York, Indiana University and Columbia College. He completed postgraduate studies at Columbia University where he held a Sloan-Rockefeller Advanced Science Writing Fellowship.
Bergman passed away Feb. 11, 1987.