Communication Awards at the National Academy of Sciences

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) welcomes all to the National Academy of Sciences building at 2101 Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C./photo by Patricia Leslie


Last Wednesday evening at the Albert Einstein building on Constitution Avenue (AKA National Academy of Sciences), May Berenbaum, the committee chair for the 2019 NAS Communication Awards, gathered with hundreds to honor recipients "for excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering and/or medicine to the general public."

The event, sponsored for the last time by the W.M. Keck Foundation, recognized achievements for written, online, and spoken words by teams and individuals.

Winners in each category receive $20,000. 

Honorees were:

Film/Radio/TV:  Howard Berkes, Nicole Beemsterboer, Huo Jingnan and Robert Benincasa for "Coal's Deadly Dust" which aired on National Public Radio

Magazine/Newspaper:  Tina Saey, "Genetic Testing Goes Mainstream" in Science News. (She was not present to receive her award.)


Online: Lisa Song, Al Shaw, Katie Campbell, Patrick Michels, ad Ranjani Chakraborty for "Flood They Neighbor" in ProPublica and "The Last Generation" for the GroundTruth Project and Frontline PBS. (This award was started in 2009.)
  
Book:  Carl Zimmer for She Has Her Mother's Laugh:  The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity.

The winning science communication team for the category of Film/Radio/TV at NAS included Howard Berkes, Nicole Beemsterboer, Huo Jingnan and Robert Benincasa for their "Coal's Deadly Dust"/photo by Patricia Leslie

The winning science communication team for the Online category at NAS included Lisa Song, Katie Campbell, Al Shaw, Patrick Michels, and Ranjani Chakraborty for "Flood They Neighbor" and "The Last Generation." /photo by Patricia Leslie.

More winners at the National Academy of Sciences 2019 Communication Awards/photo by Patricia Leslie

Carl Zimmer won a 2019 NAS Communication Award for his book, "She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity."  May Berenbaum, right, the NAS committee chair, presented the award/photo by Patricia Leslie

Carl Zimmer at the 2019 NAS Communication Awards/photo by Patricia Leslie

The stage for the presentation of the book category winner She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer, at right/photo by Patricia Leslie


A reception followed in the Great Hall where Dr. Zimmer autographed his book which was given to attendees who also received copies of the other winning pieces. 


When a woman in line for Dr. Zimmer's autograph told him she wasn't a scientist, he replied:  "This book was not written for scientists."

I hope the awards presentations can continue under another foundation's administration since the Keck Foundation has ended its sponsorship. No reason for the termination was given.

patricialesli@gmail.com