September 2025
Free: Science Writing on Substack
From the D.C. Science Writers Association (DCSWA)
Join the D.C. Science Writers Association (DCSWA) on Thursday, Sept. 18 to learn how to use Substack to share news about science, medicine, health, and technology. This free online Zoom webinar will include a panel of leading science writers and communicators who will provide insight about how they got started on Substack and are using the platform to share news with followers.
Learn more at this link.
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
Free media registration is now open for Neuroscience 2025. This year’s annual meeting will take place November 15–19 at the San Diego Convention Center and online. For more information, see the Neuroscience 2025 website.
October is the month when the NASW’s Peggy Girshman Idea Grants committee is scheduled to begin accepting applications. The program invites proposals from individuals or groups to apply for grants ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. The projects and programs should be designed to help science writers in their professional lives and/or to benefit the field of science writing. Proposals can serve non-members as well as members. The program encourages creative thinking, thus the guidelines for these proposals are consciously broad. For more information, see the NASW website.
October 1 is the postmark deadline to apply for an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship. The fellowship grants, either 12 months ($40,000) or 6 month ($20,000), allow you to do independent research and writing on a topic of your choosing. At least one fellowship is aimed at science and environmental coverage. For more information, see the Alicia Patterson Foundation website.
October 4 is the deadline to apply for the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) Student Innovation Competition. The 2025 RJI competition challenge is to create something to help journalists and newsrooms tackle the increasing rates of news avoidance to get vital information to the communities they serve. Each team can be up to four students, who can be enrolled at any college or university in the US. Cash prizes. For more information, see the Reynolds Journalism Institute website.
October is the deadline to apply for the IWMF Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program. This nine-month International Women's Media Foundation program for women and nonbinary journalists from underrepresented backgrounds is designed to address the lack of diversity in leadership positions across newsrooms in the United States. Fellows are paired with mentors and learn from media experts on a wide range of topics. For more information, see the International Women's Media Foundation website.
November 1 is the deadline to apply for the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. This award, from the American Chemical Society, is given to recognize and encourage outstanding reporting directly to the public that increases knowledge and understanding of chemistry and chemical engineering. Work may be in print, radio, television, films, online media or books. Winners receive $5,000 and travel expenses to the next ACS national meeting. For more information, visit the ACS website.
NCSWA About Town
Celia Ford started a new role as an AI reporter at Transformer, where she covers AI policy and technical developments. She can be reached there at celia@transformernews.ai.
Christine Heinrichs published Part 1 of a report on her visit to Shetland last year for Wool Week in the current issue of Countryside magazine. She knitted the official hats, and compiled a book of poems about Tommy, the local cat, who has his own Facebook page, The Adventures of Tommy.
Paul Kleyman's GBO News announced this year’s reporters chosen for the16th Annual Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, including two Northern California journalists: Julia Métraux, San Francisco, Disability Reporter, Mother Jones/Center for Investigative Reporting; and Victor Rodriguez Tafoya, Sacramento, for Palabra, news service of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. (Last year’s Fellows included NCSWA’s Donna Alvarado.)
New Members
Nina Bai, Stanford Medicine, San Francisco
Collin Blinder, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Santa Cruz
Raquel Destefano, Freelance, Chula Vista
Eva Emerson, Knowable Magazine from Annual Reviews, Los Altos
Lida Gifford, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley
Sonja Jones / Shin, Shin Spot Media, Mountain View
Stacy Kish, Earthspin: Science Concepts for the Masses LLC, Berkeley
Leah Messinger, self employed, Piedmont
Susan Kuramoto Moffat, Freelance, Albany
Sam Penrose, self employed, Sausalito