Congratulations to Laura Castañón, ’18, for winning an Excellence in Institutional Writing Award in the Short-Form category from the National Association of Science Writers. Castañón, a science reporter at Northeastern University, took home the $2,000 prize for “Quantum Information Systems Will Revolutionize Computing…As Soon As We Figure Out How to Make Them,” a piece that dives into new ways to design quantum information systems and the challenges researchers face.

The National Association of Science Writers’ judging committee brought together writers from NASA Earth Observatory, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Princeton University, Purdue University, and many more. Judges commended Castañón’s ability to present tough technical material in a readable, digestible manner and said that they were impressed with how she “found ways to tie the subject to other concepts in computer science and physics, such as the traveling salesman problem and Einstein’s famous description of quantum entanglement as ‘spooky action at a distance.’”

Started just last year, the Excellence in Institutional Writing Awards were created to honor high-quality science writing produced by institutions and nonprofit organizations. More information on all of the winners is available here. Congratulations to Laura!