Every year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and The Kavli Foundation honor excellence in science reporting from around the world through the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. The awards recognize submissions in categories such as reporting for children, video reporting, magazine reporting and more.
The 2024 winners were celebrated in February at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. Many of the awardees emphasized the importance of supporting science journalism at a time when science credibility is too often under threat.
Winners in five of the categories spoke with me about why their work is important, and offered advice for fellow journalists reporting on science-related topics.
Science reporting - Large outlet
He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore, by Simar Bajaj for The Guardian
Simar Bajaj broke an oft-touted rule for freelance journalists with his award-winning article: he sent the piece, already written at over 5,000 words, to an editor. Not only did this editor at The Guardian assess that the story was worthy of being published, but the Kavli Awards deemed it deserving of recognition.
Bajaj’s piece profiles a trauma surgeon and gun reform activist in Baltimore, who himself was a victim of gun violence as a teenager. Bajaj uses this impactful personal story to shed light on how some doctors have begun using their experiences to advocate around political issues such as gun control which in the past have been considered largely outside the scope of the profession.
“Many people are afraid or intimidated by science, so my work seeks to tap into people's curiosity and wonder, making complex medical topics accessible,” Bajaj said. “It's a challenging time to do this work, but I am grateful for the privilege of being a science journalist.”
Bajaj, who is both a medical researcher and a health journalist, spent 24 hours following trauma specialists in a hospital as part of his reporting.
Science reporting - In-depth
A River Runs Above Us, by Serena Renner for Hakai Magazine
Serena Renner’s story, A River Runs Above Us, delves into the history and impact of atmospheric rivers, which are storms that can create large amounts of rainfall and result in flooding. Using two examples of lake revival projects, Renner highlights for readers the consequences of what she terms “weather whiplash” between flood and drought.
Renner attributed her win in part to the timeliness of her piece. Her coverage was published during the 2023 summer drought in California, shortly following one of the worst flood seasons in recent memory.
“People were experiencing ‘weather whiplash’ in real-time,” she said. “This story included valuable information about the science of atmospheric river rainstorms while also connecting the dots between flooding and drought.”
Curiosity lies at the center of Renner’s reporting, which tends to focus on community initiatives, human narratives, and solutions. Her interest in this particular story was sparked when her native Canada experienced similar drought and flood cycles in 2021.
Magazine reporting
The end of the everywhere bird, by Kate Evans for New Zealand Geographic
For New Zealand Geographic, Kate Evans wrote a compassionately clever ode to a bird that she used to consider a bother. Evans used beautiful imagery and enthralling characters to turn an easily overlooked subject into a fascinating case study.
“Everyday things so often have a deep and beautiful story absolutely underneath them, if you just scratch the surface a tiny bit,” she said. “I think that what that story has is an emotional arc that was there, that I excavated and found. All of the science hangs underneath that.”
Evans advised other journalists to seek out an emotional core to their stories — one that fascinates. The trick is to tie it to bigger themes or truths in the public interest, as Evans did with climate change in this example.
Video spot news/Feature reporting
This enzyme is responsible for life on Earth. It’s a hot mess.
The Gulf Coast is home to one of the last healthy coral reefs. It’s surrounded by oil. By Jesse Nichols for Grist
In the video category, Jesse Nichols won with two lovely explainers. The first explored a key plant enzyme that researchers want to make more effective. The second showcased a coral reef surviving in the middle of oil drilling fields.
Nichols said he feels his work hit a nerve because it revealed surprising information about subjects that audiences think they already know something about. For instance, although many people may be familiar with the basic idea of plant photosynthesis, they might not have heard of the crucial, yet ineffective, enzyme driving the process. “What I was going for when I reported these stories were stories about using science to uncover things that would otherwise be invisible, like a curiosity-driven series."
Finding compelling characters and narrative arcs to illustrate science is what makes it wondrous for the average reader, said Nichols. He compared his reporting process for the plant enzyme story to casting for a movie: he sought out scientists working in the field and then considered who would be a relatable or interesting character to illustrate the issue.
Audio reporting
Mila's Legacy, by Sandra Kanthal and Natasha Loder for the BBC
Sandra Kanthal and Natasha Loder skillfully intertwined an engaging personal story with groundbreaking science in their award-winning piece about a child with a rare illness whose mother finds doctors willing to develop a personalized medicine for her.
The story, memorably and relatably, recounts the unique quest undertaken by the patient’s mother to save her daughter’s life. “It's a story about a mother fighting desperately to save her child, which any parent in the world can relate to,” said Kanthal. Working in audio also allowed Kanthal and Loder to lay out the narrative and engage listeners in a powerfully emotional way.
Kanthal advised fellow journalists to not just cover the most obvious stories, but to identify issues and sources for your reporting that strike as particularly notable, memorable, or even problematic. “If something goes off in the back of your brain that says that's actually really interesting,” she said, “then follow that story, and not necessarily where the herd is going.”
Photo by Egor Kamelev.
Read more articles by
