December 2025

Field Trip: Discover Point Reyes in Transition

• When: Sunday, January 11, 2026. 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m  
• Where: Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore 
• What: Discover how Point Reyes is changing as dairy ranches close and the land reverts to wild state. For permitting reasons and to prevent overcrowding, registration for this field trip is capped at 25.

Join the waitlist here. 

SAVE THE DATE!

Come celebrate the New Year at NCSWA's annual bash!

• When: Thursday, January 29, 2026, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. 
• Where: Jupiter's Stratosphere Room, 2181 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley 
• What: Pizza, beer, games, prizes, and camaraderie!

Connect with NCSWA on Bluesky 

Follow us at @ncswa.bsky.social for event announcements and other updates. You can now also add your Bluesky handle to your NCSWA profile. (Log into your account and click on “View profile,” then “Edit profile.” After making the changes, click “Save.“)

Training, Conferences, and Awards

December 8 is the deadline to apply for the AACR June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism, established by the American Association for Cancer Research in 2015 to raise awareness of the critical role that the media play in educating the public about cancer and cancer research. For more information, visit the award website. 

January 12 is the deadline to apply to the George R.R. Martin Summer Intensive Writing Workshop, designed for mid-career journalists who are writing their first novels. The 10 mid-career journalists selected to participate will learn from award-winning novelists and writing instructors. The eight-day, fully funded writing intensive program will take place in Evanston, Illinois, from July 7-15.  For more information, visit the workshop website. 

January 15 is the deadline to apply for the Knight Science Journalism Academic-Year Fellowship at MIT.  Every year, this program offers academic-year fellowships to 10 science journalists from around the globe, giving them an opportunity to explore science, technology, and the craft of journalism. For more information, see the fellowship website. 

January 31 is the deadline to apply to the The Ferriss-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship, which offers ten $10,000 reporting grants per year to journalists reporting in-depth print and audio stories on the science, policy, business, and culture of this new era of psychedelics. The fellowship is a project of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. For more information, see the fellowship website.

January 31 is the deadline to apply for the Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional science journalism from the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. The award will honor a single article or a series — print, digital, or broadcast — with a $10,000 prize for covering science, public health, technology, or environmental issues. For more information, see the award website.

February 1 is the deadline to apply for the National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Journalism Awards. NASW established the Science in Society Journalism Awards to provide recognition — without subsidy from any professional or commercial interest — for investigative or interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact on modern society. For more information, see the award website.

February 1 is the deadline to apply for the National Association of Science Writers Excellence in Institutional Writing Awards. NASW established these awards to recognize high-caliber, publicly accessible science writing produced on behalf of an institution or other non-media organization. For more information, see the award website. 

NCSWA About Town

Sierra Garcia joined the San Francisco Estuary Institute's Clean Water Program earlier this year as their first full time science communicator, writing about emerging contaminants like forever chemicals, fishing in the Bay, how leftover contaminants from the 20th century continue to impact Bay health, innovative watershed studies, and much more. Reach out about anything related to San Francisco Bay water quality at sierrag@sfei.org.

Bruce Goldman received three awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, District VII, for three articles: Why women are at greater risk of autoimmune disease; Stanford scientists transform ubiquitous skin bacterium into a topical vaccine; Brain organoids help scientists study and treat neurodevelopmental disorders (shared with fellow NCSWA member Erin Digitale). 

Liza Gross won an Society of Professional Journalists, NorCal chapter, Excellence in Journalism award for investigative reporting for the Inside Climate News Captured series, with contributions from Peter Aldhous. The series, which explored how pesticide regulators place industry profits above public health, also won a SABEW (Society for Advancing Business Editing & Writing) award for health/science. 

Christine Heinrichs attended the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference to workshop her book on elephant seals. In a different marine mammal species, she’s quoted about reuniting a sea otter mother and pup in this San Luis Obispo Tribune story.

Lisa Krieger was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, NorCal chapter, for environmental reporting in her Bay Nature article “Point Reyes, After The Cattle: When ranchers leave the land, what version of nature takes over?” A longtime San Jose Mercury News journalist, Krieger is now freelancing from her home near the West Marin village of Point Reyes Station.

Robin Meadows is enjoying being a mentor in the AAAS Mass Media Fellow/The Open Notebook mentoring program, which helps MMF alumni reach their science communication goals. She's also a long-time mentor in the The Open Notebook's Covering Science program, which helps local and general assignment reporters and editors include more science in their stories. 

New Members

Alexandra Barnard, University of Otago, San Quentin

Pamela Bentley Mills, Lucida Science Communications, San Jose

Grace Rubenstein, Freelance, Alameda

Meg Tanaka, UC Berkeley, Menlo Park