Date Issued: October 5, 2011
The Pace Press
Senior Fellow Andrew Revkin wins National Communication Award
By: Julia Yeung
Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding at the University and “Dot Earth” blogger for The New York Times, Andrew Revkin,became the first two-time winner of the National Academies Communication Award honored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. There were over 300 entries published or aired in 2010 that were submitted for consideration for the award.
The National Academies Communication Award is considered to be arguably the most prestigious award in science journalism. It recognizes “excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public,” according to Nationalacademies.org. A $20,000 prize is awarded in each of the four categories for communication through books, newspapers, and magazines, the Internet, television and radio, and film.
When asked he plans to do with the award money, Revkin stated, “It pretty much replaces income lost from having to return a modest book advance for a kids' book on disasters that I no longer can fit into my schedule, in part because of my transition to teaching. Basically I've learned that there really are just 24 hours in a day!”
Revkin won his first award in 2003 under the magazine and newspaper category on coverage of the environmental and climate change. He won this year under the online category for his “Dot Earth” opinion editorial in The New York Times coverage on “climate and sustainability.” He will have been writing his “Dot Earth” blog for four year this coming October.
“The shift from 15 years of news reporting to writing more analytically for the opinion pages has come with some relief - in not having to jump on a plane or in a car when a hurricane strikes or plane falls out of the sky, both things I have covered, and some anxiety, in getting to be myself after so much time pursuing objective reports,” Revkin said.
“Dot Earth” is read by millions of people in more than 200 countries. He also has over 26,000 followers on Twitterand has reached his max of 5,000 friends on Facebook.
“It takes work and outreach. I don't sit back and rely on people coming to me. Twitter is like a new pair of antennae, giving me global awareness to some extent,” Revkin said.
Revkin has spent more than 20 years involved with the topic of the environment and climate change, producing more than 500 magazine and news stories, two books, a prize-winning Discovery Times documentary Artic Rush and hundreds of posts on “Dot Earth.”
“I'm really excited this fall because I created my first Pace courses from scratch -Blogging a Better Planet. I'm co-learning with my great batch of students how to use the Web to make the world a better place -an effort that will always be a work in progress,” Revkin said.
The three other winners this year included Rebecca Skloot for her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, television producer Alexa Elliott and a production team at South Florida public television station WPBT2 for the television show “Changing Seas: Sentinels of the Seas” and The New York Times national correspondent Amy Harmon for her work on “Cancer,” which is about clinical drug trials.
The winners of the Communication Award will be honored in a ceremony at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington D.C. on Oct. 14.
The Pace Press
Senior Fellow Andrew Revkin wins National Communication Award
By: Julia Yeung
Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding at the University and “Dot Earth” blogger for The New York Times, Andrew Revkin,became the first two-time winner of the National Academies Communication Award honored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. There were over 300 entries published or aired in 2010 that were submitted for consideration for the award.
The National Academies Communication Award is considered to be arguably the most prestigious award in science journalism. It recognizes “excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public,” according to Nationalacademies.org. A $20,000 prize is awarded in each of the four categories for communication through books, newspapers, and magazines, the Internet, television and radio, and film.
When asked he plans to do with the award money, Revkin stated, “It pretty much replaces income lost from having to return a modest book advance for a kids' book on disasters that I no longer can fit into my schedule, in part because of my transition to teaching. Basically I've learned that there really are just 24 hours in a day!”
Revkin won his first award in 2003 under the magazine and newspaper category on coverage of the environmental and climate change. He won this year under the online category for his “Dot Earth” opinion editorial in The New York Times coverage on “climate and sustainability.” He will have been writing his “Dot Earth” blog for four year this coming October.
“The shift from 15 years of news reporting to writing more analytically for the opinion pages has come with some relief - in not having to jump on a plane or in a car when a hurricane strikes or plane falls out of the sky, both things I have covered, and some anxiety, in getting to be myself after so much time pursuing objective reports,” Revkin said.
“Dot Earth” is read by millions of people in more than 200 countries. He also has over 26,000 followers on Twitterand has reached his max of 5,000 friends on Facebook.
“It takes work and outreach. I don't sit back and rely on people coming to me. Twitter is like a new pair of antennae, giving me global awareness to some extent,” Revkin said.
Revkin has spent more than 20 years involved with the topic of the environment and climate change, producing more than 500 magazine and news stories, two books, a prize-winning Discovery Times documentary Artic Rush and hundreds of posts on “Dot Earth.”
“I'm really excited this fall because I created my first Pace courses from scratch -Blogging a Better Planet. I'm co-learning with my great batch of students how to use the Web to make the world a better place -an effort that will always be a work in progress,” Revkin said.
The three other winners this year included Rebecca Skloot for her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, television producer Alexa Elliott and a production team at South Florida public television station WPBT2 for the television show “Changing Seas: Sentinels of the Seas” and The New York Times national correspondent Amy Harmon for her work on “Cancer,” which is about clinical drug trials.
The winners of the Communication Award will be honored in a ceremony at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington D.C. on Oct. 14.
