Nadia Drake

{{Short description|American science journalist (born 1980)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Nadia Meghann Drake

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1980|07|06}}

| birth_place =

| education = Cornell University (AB, PhD)
University of California, Santa Cruz (MS)

| nationality = American

| spouse =

| children =

| occupation = Science journalist

| years_active =

| parents = Frank Drake (father)

}}

Nadia Drake (born July 6, 1980) is an American science journalist and is the interim Physics Editor at Quanta Magazine.{{cite web|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/about/|title=Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.|publisher=Quanta Magazine|website=quantamagazine.com|access-date=26 August 2023}} Previously, she was a contributing writer at National Geographic.

Early life and education

By 2002 Drake had earned an A.B. in biology, psychology, and dance at Cornell University,{{citation |title=Nadia Drake '11 joins National Geographic "Phenomena" blog |date=April 8, 2014 |url=https://scicom.ucsc.edu/about/program-news-articles/2014-04-drake.html |publisher=University of California, Santa Cruz Science Communication Program |accessdate=November 20, 2017}}

She returned to Cornell for her Ph.D. in genetics and developmental biology in 2009. Her Ph.D. thesis is entitled Phenotypic consequences of imprinting perturbations at Rasgrf1 in mouse.{{cite web|title=Phenotypic consequences of imprinting perturbations at Rasgrf1 in mouse|author=Drake, Nadia Meghann|year=2010|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|publisher=Cornell University|url=https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/6891001}} (See Ras superfamily and Ras-GRF1.)

In 2011 she graduated from the University of California's Science Communication program at the Santa Cruz campus, with a Master of Science degree.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Career

Drake worked in a clinical genetics lab at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine while she was studying her Ph.D. in genetics.{{Cite web |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |date=March 10, 2014 |title=Please Welcome Nadia Drake {{!}} the Newest Member of Phenomena |url=https://carlzimmer.com/please-welcome-nadia-drake-the-newest-member-of-phenomena/ |access-date=May 31, 2019}}

During her residence at the UCSC's SciCom program, she was a reporting intern for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, San Jose's The Mercury News, and Nature.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Afterwards she moved to Washington, D.C. for an internship at Science News, which turned into a job as the magazine's astronomy reporter.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Drake then returned to the San Francisco Bay Area for a science reporting job at WIRED.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

She has been a freelance contributor to The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, WIRED, and other publications. {{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In 2024 Drake joined the board of directors of the SETI Institute as observer.{{cite web|date=April 2024 |title=Nadia Drake Joins SETI Institute Board of Directors as Observer |url=https://www.seti.org/nadia-drake-joins-seti-institute-board-directors-observer}}

Book

Drake is the author of Little Book of Wonders: Celebrating the Gifts of the Natural World (National Geographic Books, 2016).{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Awards and honours

  • In 2016 Drake received the Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award for her article "[https://web.archive.org/web/20210522012820/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/150702-pluto-occultation-shadow-nasa-science Scientists in Flying Telescope Race to Intercept Pluto's Shadow]," which appeared July 3, 2015, on National Geographic's website.{{cite web |last1=Reddy |first1=Vishnu |title=AAS Division For Planetary Sciences Announces 2016 Prize Winners |url=https://dps.aas.org/news/aas-division-planetary-sciences-announces-2016-prize-winners |website=Division for Planetary Sciences |date=10 May 2016 |publisher=American Astronomical Society |access-date=May 22, 2021}}
  • In 2017 she won the David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism from the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society for "[https://web.archive.org/web/20210224182310/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160211-gravitational-waves-found-spacetime-science Found! Gravitational Waves, or a Wrinkle in Spacetime]" which was published on National Geographic's website on February 11, 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://head.aas.org/schramm/schramm.prize.html|title=The David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism {{!}} High Energy Astrophysics Division|website=head.aas.org|access-date=May 31, 2019}}

Personal life

Drake is the daughter of SETI pioneer Frank Drake and Amahl Drake (née Shakhashiri).{{Cite web |date=2022-10-13 |title=Frank Drake obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/13/frank-drake-obituary |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

References

{{Reflist}}