Congratulations to Iris M. Crawford and James Dinneen, members of our incoming 2021-22 class, for winning Taylor/Blakeslee University Fellowships. Awarded by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, these fellowships are designed to support graduate training in science writing and include $5,000 in tuition support.

Iris M. Crawford comes to MIT with bylines in The San Francisco Chronicle, Yes! Magazine, and The Crisis magazine. She completed a BA in political science and African American studies at Syracuse University, and plans to focus on investigative environmental journalism. “What brings me to science journalism is seeing the ways in which bias and racism, particularly within the realms of environmental and biomedical science, continue to have lasting effects on communities such as my own,” Iris told the CASW.

James Dinneen’s work has appeared in Discover Magazine, Popular Science, Smithsonian, Undark Magazine, Mongabay, bioGraphic, and more. He holds a BA in history and philosophy from Colorado College, and joins MIT’s incoming science writing class with an eye towards producing long-form projects.

Congratulations again to Iris and James. You can read about all of the 2021-22 Taylor/Blakeslee Fellows here.