Wilson da Silva
SCIENCE WRITER, EDITOR & CONSULTANT
MAGAZINES
COSMOS: The Science of Everything
COSMOS is a science magazine produced in Australia with a global outlook and literary ambitions. Launched in 2005, it won 48 awards under the editorial leadership of Wilson da Silva, including Magazine of the Year (2006 and 2009) and Editor of the Year (2005, 2006 and highly commended in 2010). Writers have included Margaret Wertheim, Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery, Richard Dawkins, Edward O. Wilson, Michio Kaku, Susan Greenfield, Steven Pinker, Paul Davies, Simon Singh and Oliver Sacks.
COSMOS was the brainchild of Wilson da Silva, who co-founded it with Australia's former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, publishing executive Kylie Ahern and science writer Elizabeth Finkel. The magazine was published by Cosmos Media, a boutique publishing house created by the founders. Da Silva served as editor-in-chief from 2004-2013, followed by Elizabeth Finkel from 2013-2018. In September 2018, COSMOS was acquired by the Royal Institution of Australia, a not-for-profit science media organisation based in Adelaide, and it continues to be published in print and online.
COSMOS iPad edition
Under the Cosmos Media stable, it had 12,000 subscribers, audited print circulation of 26,800 and a readership of 114,000; plus an online audience of 300,000 unique visitors and more than 1 million page views per month; COSMOS also had 25,000 weekly newsletter subscribers and reached 70% of Australian high schools with its education supplements, study guides and teacher's notes. A highly interactive iPad edition launched in 2012 became the world's top-rated science magazine on iTunes by readers and was named by Apple among its 'Best of 2012' apps. Cosmos Media was Australia's first 100% carbon neutral media company and used 100% GreenPower in its operations.
G MAGAZINE
G: THE GREEN LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE was a monthly Australian consumer sustainability title co-founded by Wilson da Silva and launched by Cosmos Media in 2006; the online daily news site went live in 2008. Editorial advisors included Sir Richard Branson; farmer and author Patrice Newell; former UK climate change advisor Nick Rowley; renowned scientist and author Dr Tim Flannery; environmental policy advisor Molly Harriss Olson; Cathy Zoi, former environmental policy advisor to U.S. president Bill Clinton; and Dr Jane Gilmour, former director of Earthwatch. It was the country's first carbon neutral magazine and the first produced on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
Eighteen issues were produced under the leadership of Wilson da Silva as editor-in-chief and Sara Phillips as editor, before it was sold to Next Media in January 2009. Under the Cosmos Media stable, the title won seven awards, including 2007 Consumer Magazine of the Year, 2008 Best Internet Site and 2008 Editor of the Year for Phillips. That same year, the magazine won the inaugural Lord Mayor's Sustainability Award at the annual City of Sydney Business Awards. It ceased publication in 2015, although the website is still live.
G: The Green Lifestyle Magazine
NEWTON Graphic Science
NEWTON was a bi-monthly science magazine headed by Wilson da Silva as managing editor and produced by Australian Geographic, which licensed the brand from Japan's Newton Inc. Marrying the lush illustrations of its Japanese cousin with articles by Australian journalists and scientists, it became the highest-selling science magazine in Australian history, with an audited print circulation of 41,000. Launched in September 2000, eight issues were produced before it closed in December 2001.
21C and SCIENCE SPECTRA
21C was an Australian avant-garde futures quarterly founded by Australia's Commission for the Future in 1990. Acquired in 1994 by the Swiss-based Gordon & Breach Publishing Group, it came under the editorial leadership of Wilson da Silva as managing editor, and during his tenure (1994-95) the Melbourne-based title featured writers such as Carl Sagan, Al Gore, William Gibson and Noam Chomsky. The magazine ceased publication in 1999.
SCIENCE SPECTRA was an international scholarly digest founded in 1994 by the Swiss-based Gordon & Breach Publishing Group. Visually appealing and engagingly written, it was aimed at scientists seeking cross-disciplinary feature articles on new scientific advances. It was headed by managing editor Wilson da Silva in Melbourne and relied on a global panel of scientific editors led by physicist Gerhart Friedlander in New York. The title moved to Philadelphia in 1995 and closed in 2000.
