Congratulations to Hannah Richter, ’24, for winning a first place Science in Society Journalism Award from the National Association of Science Writers. Hannah scooped up the award in the Science News category for “In Red States, Many Academic Researchers Feel Fear–and Resolve,” a piece published last November in Science Magazine that dives into the ways in which researchers and teachers have been impacted by changes in federal and state funding.

Judges praised the story’s broad diversity of sources, including graduate students and faculty, and its “clear, strong and nuanced picture of the reality of being a researcher in states that have passed laws banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs, restricting faculty protections, and limiting course topics,” an NASW press release said.

Hannah is a contributing correspondent for Science who covers Earth and space. Her bylines can be found in Science, Nature, Smithsonian, WIRED, Science News, Sky & Telescope, Ars Technica, Popular Mechanics, and Sierra, among others.

You can read all of the Science in Society award-winning entries here. Congratulations, Hannah!

Congratulations to Cameron Glymph, ’27, and the rest of the FSView / Florida Flambeau team for winning a 2026 Sunshine State Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Cameron won a first place award in the College Breaking News category alongside fellow FSView and Florida Flambeau reporters Sarah Cheatham, Michaela Galligan, and Justice Ulrich for their story, “Large Fire at Off-Campus Apartment The Social Seminole Injures Seven.”

In addition to the breaking news win, Cameron was also a finalist along with Raquelle Elson, Tanner Block, and Justice Ulrich in the College Arts and Entertainment Review category for “It’s Florida, Man.’ Season 2 is a love letter to the Sunshine State.”

You can read about all of the Sunshine State Award Winners here. Congratulations, Cameron!

Congratulations to Alex Ip, ’24, and The Xylom for winning a 2026 Online Journalism Award for reporting that Alex began as a student in the GPSW. Winning in the Excellence in Science Reporting, Small / Medium Newsroom category, The Xylom scooped up the prize for “‘All Hell Breaks Loose’: How Big Oil Ruined a Small Texas Town,” a series that documents how a small coastal town in Texas has transformed into “the Crude Oil Export Capital of the United States” and taken on enormous chemical and pollutant risk.

The series is the culmination of three years of reporting, which began as Alex’s thesis at MIT. Since graduation, Alex continued reporting and published the work as a three-part series on The Xylom, co-published it on Deceleration Media and Floodlight News, and created audio reporting on the climate podcast Drilled. You can read the series here:

“’Our Slice of Heaven That You’re Willing To Turn Into Hell for a Profit‘”

“’I Was Having a Good Time’: How Did a Small Town in South Texas Get Hit With Two Oil Spills?”

“‘You Need To Air Out Your Dirty Laundry: An Anatomy of a TCEQ Public Hearing”

Congratulations, Alex and The Xylom team!

Interested in applying to the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing? Join us for our fall admissions information webinar. Faculty and staff will give an overview of the curriculum, financial aid, and admissions procedures, and will answer questions from viewers. Details for the event are here:

The MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing Information Webinar

Friday, November 6 at 1pm. 

Register for the information session here.

MIT students just nabbed four out of seven Taylor / Blakeslee Graduate Fellowships this year. Awarded by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, the fellowships help support students pursuing graduate studies in science and environmental journalism.

This year, four of our incoming students won fellowships. Cameron Glymph, Sruthi Gurudev, Jenna Lang, and Jesse Steinmetz all won $6,000 to support their studies thanks to generous funding from The Brinson Foundation.

“I was heartened by the passion and the professionalism that came through in this year’s applications for the fellowships,” Alan Boyle, chair of the Awards and Fellowships Committee, said in a press release. “Hearing about the fellows’ life stories and seeing the work that they’ve done at this early stage of their careers is a great antidote for the angst that science journalists can sometimes feel in this uncertain age.”

Congratulations, Cameron, Sruthi, Jenna, and Jesse. You can read about all of our incoming students here.

As one class is starting their summer internships, another is getting ready to head to Cambridge. We are thrilled to announce our Class of 2027! Our incoming students bring a wide range of experience and expertise. We’re delighted to welcome:

Amber X. Chen is a writer and journalist from LA’s San Gabriel Valley. She recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she reported for and edited The Daily Californian. Her writing on the environment, health, and politics has appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, Smithsonian, Inside Climate News, Teen Vogue, Atmos, and more. Her writing on the arts, music, and culture has appeared in No Bells, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Asian American Arts Alliance.

Alissa Fagin is a New York-based science communicator and documentary filmmaker whose projects have spanned topics including octopuses, maternal mortality, and synesthesia. Her work has been screened at Sundance and Tribeca, and can be found on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO, Hulu, and Vice. Most recently, Alissa directed Sound & Color, a documentary short that is being screened at festivals and conferences globally.

Cameron Glymph is a recent graduate of Florida State University, where she earned degrees in English and Political Science. During her time at FSU, she served as editor-in-chief of the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the university’s student-run newspaper, leading its transition from a weekly print publication to a digital-first, daily news platform. Beyond her work with the FSView, Glymph was a member of the third cohort of The New York Times Corps. She reported on the social impacts of climate change and environmental policy for the Florida Student News Watch and Planet Forward, with a focus on how these issues affect communities.

Sruthi Gurudev is a science journalist who’s interested in the environment, wildlife, marine science, and natural history. She has covered stories ranging from whale falls and hatching squid to snake zoonotics and disappearing ecosystems. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, and Mongabay. Sruthi also explores scientific dimensions in archaeology, prehistory, and vanishing cultural traditions. Sruthi is a National Geographic Explorer, a 2025 Uproot Fellow, and a 2026 Taylor/Blakeslee Fellow.

Amisha Kumar is a data journalist whose reporting mines lived experiences, unconventional sources, and underrepresented perspectives to explore issues ranging from food insecurity to zookeeping. Amisha’s reporting interests span health and the environment, including their intersection, chronic illness, and cognition; climate resilience and eco-cultural restoration; and how technology and policy impact these areas. As a journalism student at Boston University, Amisha reported for ProPublica, The Baltimore Banner, and the Cape Cod Times, among others.

Jenna Lang is a science communicator who  grew up in Boston and studied psychology at Harvard. While working in public health research, she discovered the field of science communication. Now, she feels lucky to learn more about the world every day. For the past five years, Jenna worked at an exhibit media company, writing for museums, science centers, and historic sites.

Jesse Steinmetz is a reporter and public radio producer based in Massachusetts. He got his start in journalism as an intern at CT Public in Hartford, before working as a producer for the NPR affiliates WFAE in Charlotte and GBH in Boston. In recent years, his stories have covered everything from seaweed farmers to a minimalist smartphone company and the big business of online scammers. He has written for Forbes, Live Science, Inc. Magazine, Duolingo, and CommonWealth Beacon, among other outlets. In 2025, he was awarded a fellowship from the National Press Foundation.

Avery Truman is a journalist with undergraduate degrees in environmental studies and geography from Utah State University. She has completed two NASA writing internships, served as the managing editor of The Utah Statesman, and worked as an intern at the National Geographic Society.

Longer bios of our incoming students are available here. We can’t wait to welcome these sharp young writers to Cambridge this fall.

Congratulations to Jessica Chomik-Morales for winning a Fulbright grant. Jessica was one of ten MIT affiliates, including undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni, to receive the award. Fulbright grants are funded by the US Department of State and offer opportunities for students and recent alumni to pursue graduate education, research, or teach English in 140 countries.

Jessica will use her award to head Universitat Pompeu Fabra’s Center for Brain and Cognition in Barcelona, where she will research the underlying science that makes science communication effective or not. Specifically, Jessica will study the ways in which narrative elements in science communication shape how readers understand and engage with the material.

Jessica was in the science communication field long before coming to the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing. She is the creator, host, and producer of “Mi Última Neurona,” a Spanish-language podcast that focuses on neuroscience, and is currently producing the “Lab Notes on Love” audio series for Scientific American.

Congratulations, Jessica! You can read about all of MIT’s Fulbright winners here.

Congratulations to Alex Ip, ’24, for winning an honorable mention in the Asian American Journalists Association Journalism Excellence Awards. Alex scooped up the accolade in the Excellence in International Reporting category alongside Rhysea Agrawal for “A Tale of Three Sudans,” a three-part series published on The Xylom that covers climate change, flooding, and food insecurity crises faced by East Africans.

The series required extensive international reporting and hefty contributions by Xylom Editor-at-Large Kang-Chun Cheng, and journalists Median Hassouna and Rahiem Shadad.

The honorable mention is one of many awards The Xylom has collected over the past few years. It is the only Asian American-run health and climate news outlet, and specializes in multilingual reporting from across the globe. In recent years, Alex, the publication’s founder, publisher, and editor, has won the Atlanta Press Club’s 2024 Rising Star Award and has been a finalist for the Emerging Leader of the Year Award from the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Good Trouble Honors from the Center for Civic Innovation, and the Transparency Award, which is given to individuals or organizations that make information understandable and accessible to local communities.

You can read all three stories from the Xylom series here:

“Can The Ilemi Triangle’s Forgotten Pastoralists Trade Arms for Peace?”

“Fragile, Flooded South Sudan Asks: What About Those With Disabilities?”

“River Nile Blues: Famished Sudanese Turn to the Humble Sweet Potato”

The full list of Journalism Excellence Award recipients is available here.

Congratulations, Alex!

Nanticha (Lyn) Ocharoenchai, ’25, will add to her environmental reporting credentials this summer as a Logan Science Journalism Fellow. Lyn will travel to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to attend a ten-day intensive program designed to immerse science journalists, writers, and editors in environmental research. This year’s environmental program will focus on how nitrogen impacts coastal ecosystems, and will offer fellows access to scientists working in the field as well as opportunities to take samples in the field, make laboratory measurements, and work with researchers to analyze data.

Only six environmental fellows were selected this year. In addition to the environmental program, the Logan Science Journalism Fellowship also offers a biomedical research program. You can read about all of the fellows here. Congratulations Lyn!

As the effects of climate change ravage cities across the world, Boston faces impending sea level rise, flooding, and dangerous levels of heat. Courtney Humphries, ’04, chronicles these potential futures and solutions in her new book, Climate Change and the Future of Boston (Anthem Press).

The book takes readers through the history of Boston and its current position as a leader on climate adaptation and mitigation, and addresses systemic challenges that hinder broader climate action, including aging infrastructure, historic racial inequities, rising gentrification, income inequality, and regulatory barriers.

“Courtney Humphries’ excellent new book offers a detailed exploration of the intricacies policy makers face when confronting climate change,” Janelle Knox-Hayes, director of Resilient Communities Lab at MIT, said in a review. “The Boston case study is richly detailed and seamlessly blends governance theory with empirical insight. Climate policy is unpacked through complex cultural, socioeconomic, and environmental dynamics. Humphries’ use of historical data and detailed analysis of the current policy evolution reveals the promise and limits of urban climate leadership. This book is essential reading for scholars and practitioners alike who wish to be more effective in building climate policy on the ground.”

In addition to holding a masters in science writing from MIT, Courtney also holds a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She’s currently a lecturer at Smith College and her bylines can be found in The Boston Globe, Nature, Science, Technology Review, Harvard Magazine, Nautilus, and The Atlantic, among others.

Climate Change and the Future of Boston is available here.

After completing her Nova Media Fellowship, Maria Parazo Rose has a new project supported by The Nova Institute for Health. Supported by a grant to Nova from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Maria will assemble a team of Indigenous land practitioners and experts from across the globe and investigate cases where nations ranging from Canada to South Africa have returned land to Indigenous peoples. The goal of the project is to both illuminate the long-lasting ripple effects of land return cases and to pinpoint best practices and successful strategies for conducting these procedures.

“Improving health issues in Indigenous communities is tied to land: its history, its use, and its future. Centuries of land dispossession and the systematic denial of basic rights have created poorer economic, social, and health conditions for Indigenous peoples,” Maria said in a press release. “Secure land tenure drives Indigenous resilience, and planetary health as a result, making it critical to understand what effective land return initiatives look like worldwide.”

The project is an expansion of Maria’s Nova Media Fellowship project, which examined how land rights and climate change impact tribal communities, sovereignty, and jurisdiction. Maria published a series of stories on these issues in Grist, where she was formerly a reporter and spatial data analyst on the Indigenous Affairs desk.

Congratulations, Maria!

Congratulations to Rachel Becker, ’15, and Lisa Song, ’09, for winning Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Awards for Reporting on the Environment.

Rachel won a second place prize in the Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small Publications category for a series of stories she reported for CalMatters that cover the immense complexities of California’s water crisis.

Judges called the series “thoughtful, clear and meaningful reporting on one of California’s most important issues,” adding that the “stories hold power to account and provide transparency to the way policies and regulations are implemented.” They also complimented the use of data, graphics, and photography by data journalists Arfa Momin, John Osborn D’Agostino, Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett, and photographers Loren Elliott , John Gastaldo, Miguel Gutierrez Jr., Martin do Nascimento and Larry Valenzuela.

This isn’t Rachel’s first SEJ award. In 2021, she won first place in the Outstanding Beat Reporting category for stories on water contamination from wildfires and industrial pollutants. She has also scooped up accolades from the California News Publishers Association, the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists, and the San Francisco Press Club, as well as a Golden State Journalism Award in the Environmental Reporting category and a Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for Excellence in Water Journalism.

Lisa Song won an honorable mention in the Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Large Publications category for a ProPublica series that dives into the realities and broken promises of plastic recycling.

“Lisa Song’s investigation is powerful and deeply consequential,” judges noted. “A terrific combination of an overview that explains the pyrolysis issue, a discussion of the impact for consumers and tracking of the policy movement on the issue. When the California attorney general’s office sued ExxonMobil for deceptive practices, this story was cited. That’s journalism that makes an impact.”

An investigative environmental reporter at ProPublica, Lisa has won a long list of environmental reporting awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Philip Meyer Journalism Award for Social Science, and several awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Congratulations, Rachel and Lisa. You can read Rachel’s entire CalMatters series here:

“These 42 California dams need repairs. But lawmakers cut the funds in half”

“Californians to face steep fines for violating water orders under new legislation“

“‘I won’t let them drink the water’: The California towns where clean drinking water is out of reach“

“‘Dirty Delta’: California’s largest estuary is in crisis. Is the state discriminating against people who fish there?“

“A new invader threatens California water supplies. Can the state stop its spread?“

And Lisa’s ProPublica series here, which includes  with support from Alex Bandoni (visuals), Anna Donlan (story designer), Max Gunther (illustrator), and Lucas Waldron (graphics):

“Selling a Mirage“

“When Is ‘Recyclable’ Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.“

“Biden EPA Rejects Plastics Industry’s Fuzzy Math That Misleads Customers About Recycled Content“

“ExxonMobil Accused of “Deceptively” Promoting Chemical Recycling as a Solution for the Plastics Crisis“

“The Plastics Industry’s Wish List for a Second Trump Administration“