Science Writing Award

{{Short description|Award for excellence in writing about science}}

File:AIP science writing award Windsor chair.jpg

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) instituted their Science Writing Award to "promote effective science communication in print and broadcast media in order to improve the general public's appreciation of physics, astronomy, and allied science fields."{{cite web | url=http://www.aip.org/aip/writing/ | title=Science Writing Award | publisher=American Institute of Physics | accessdate=June 6, 2017| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20130102171649/http://www.aip.org/aip/writing/| archivedate= January 2, 2013 |url-status=dead}} The winner receives $3000, and an engraved Windsor chair. The award is given in three broad categories: 1) science writing, 2) work intended for children, and 3) work done in new media. The AIP stopped issuing awards to three categories: 1) work by a professional journalist (last awarded in 2011) 2) work by a scientist (last awarded in 2009), and 3) broadcast media (last awarded in 2009)

Winners of this Science Writing Award include Nobel Prize winners Charles Townes, Steven Weinberg, and Kip Thorne; other notable winners include Simon Singh, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss, John Wheeler, Leonard Susskind, Clifford Martin Will, Abraham Pais, Heinz Pagels, Banesh Hoffmann, and Martin Gardner. Marcia Bartusiak has won the award three times, twice for her books (in 2019 and 2001) and once for her journalism (in 1982).

Winners: New Media

Past Winners: Books

  • 2020: Susan Hockfield for The Age of Living Machines (W.W. Norton & Company).{{cite web |title=2020 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/susan-hockfield |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2019: Marcia Bartusiak for Dispatches from Planet 3 (Yale University Press).{{cite web |title=2019 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/marcia-bartusiak |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2019: David Hu for How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls (Yale University Press).{{cite web |title=2019 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/david-hu |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2018: David Baron for American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World (Liveright Publishing Corporation/W. W. Norton & Company).{{cite web |title=2018 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/david-baron |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2017: Timothy Jorgensen for Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation (Princeton University Press).{{cite web |title=2017 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/timothy-jorgensen |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2016: Chris Woodford for Atoms Under the Floorboards: The Surprising Science Hidden in Your Home (Bloomsbury).{{cite web |title=2016 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/chris-woodford |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2015: Charles Adler for Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Princeton University Press).{{cite web |title=2015 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/science-communication-award-books/charles-adler |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}
  • 2014: Lee Billings for Five Billion Years of Solitude: the Search for Life Among the Stars (Current/Penguin).{{cite web |title=2014 Science Communication Award: Books |url=https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/science-communication/books/lee-billings |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 August 2021}}

Past Winners: Journalist

Past Winners: Scientist

2011: Dan Falk

Scientific magazine

Could Time End?

2009 - Dan Falk

COSMOS magazine

End of Days: A Universe in Ruins

2008 - Gino Segre

Viking/Penguin

Faust in Copenhagen

2007 - James Trefil

Astronomy magazine

Where is the Universe Heading?

2006: Simon Singh

Harper Collins

Big Bang

2005: Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Natural History Magazine

In the Beginning

2004: Len Fisher

Arcade Publishing, Inc.

How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life

www.lenfisher.co.uk

2003: Ray Jayawardhana

Astronomy Magazine

Beyond Black

2002: Lawrence Krauss

Little, Brown & Co

Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond

Honorable Mention: Ken Croswell

The Free Press

The Universe at Midnight

2001: Neil de Grasse Tyson, Charles Liu, and Robert Irion

Joseph Henry Press

One Universe

2000: Charles H. Townes

Oxford University Press

How the Laser Happened

1999: John Wheeler and Kenneth Ford,

W.W. Norton,

Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam

1998: Leonard Susskind,

Scientific American,

Black Holes and the Information Paradox

1997: Award postponed until 1998

1996: Mitchell Begelman & Martin Rees

W.H. Freeman & Co.

Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe

1995: Eric Chaisson

HarperCollins Publishing

The Hubble Wars

1994: Kip S. Thorne

W.W. Norton & Company

Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy

1993: Hans C. von Baeyer

Random House

Taming the Atom

1992: David C. Cassidy

W.H. Freeman & Co.

Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg

1991: Harold Lewis

W.W. Norton & Co.

Technological Risk

1990: Bruce Murray

W.W. Norton & Co.

Journey Into Space

1989: Mark Littmann

John Wiley & Sons

Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System

1988: Michael Riordan

Simon & Schuster

The Hunting of the Quark

1987: Clifford Martin Will

Basic Books

Was Einstein Right?

1986: Donald Goldsmith

Walker and Company

Nemesis: The Death Star

1985: Edwin C. Krupp

Macmillan Publishing Company

The Comet and You

1984: George Greenstein

Freundlich Books

Frozen Star

1983: Abraham Pais

Oxford University Press

Subtle is the Lord...The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein

1982: Heinz Pagels

Simon & Schuster

The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature

1981: Eric Chaisson

Little, Brown & Company

Cosmic Dawn

1980: {{Interlanguage link multi|William J. Kaufmann, III|it}},

W.H. Freeman & Company

Black Holes and Warped Spacetime

1979: Hans C. von Baeyer

Alumni Gazette, College of William & Mary

The Wonder of Gravity

1978: Edwin C. Krupp

Doubleday & Company

In Search of Ancient Astronomies

1977: Steven Weinberg

Basic Books, Inc.

The First Three Minutes

1976: Jeremy Bernstein

The New Yorker

Physicist: I.I. Rabi

1975: Robert H. March

Science Year

The Quandary Over Quarks

1974: Robert D. Chapman

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

'Comet Kohoutek''

1973: Banesh Hoffmann

Viking Press

Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel

1972: Dietrich Schroeer

Addison-Wesley

Physics & Its Fifth Dimension: Society

1971: Robert H. March

MacGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.

Physics for Poets

1970: Jeremy Bernstein

(written for) Atomic Energy Commission

The Elusive Neutrino

1969: Kip S. Thorne

Science Year

The Death of a Star

Past Winners: Children's

2011: Vicki Wittenstein

Boyds Mills Press

"Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths"

2010: Gillian Richardson

Annick Press Ltd.

"Kaboom! Explosions of All Kinds"

2009: Cora Lee and Gillian O'Reilly

Annick Press

"The Great Number Rumble: A story of Math in Surprising Places"

2008: Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel

Charlesbridge

"SNEEZE!

2007: Jacob Berkowitz

Kids Can Press

"Jurassic Poop"

2006: David Garrison, Shannon Hunt and Jude Isabella

Kids Can Press

"Fantastic Feats and Failures"

2005: Bea Uusma Schyffert

Chronicle Books

"The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon"

2004: Marianne Dyson

National Geographic

"Home on the Moon: Living in the Space Frontier"[http://www.agu.org/inside/honors.html#Sullivan AGU Honors]

2003: Ron Miller

Twenty-First Century Books, a Division of The Millbrook Press

Worlds Beyond Series: Extrasolar Planets, The Sun, Jupiter, and Venus

2002: Fred Bortz

The Millbrook Press

Techno-Matter: The Materials Behind the Marvels

2001: Cynthia Pratt Nicolson

Kids Can Press

Exploring Space

2000: Jill Frankel Hauser

Williamson Publishing

Science Play!

Gizmos & Gadgets

1999: Elaine Scott

Hyperion Books for Children

Close Encounters

1998: Barbara Taylor

Henry Holt and Company

Earth Explained

1997: Donald Silver

Silver Burdett Press

Extinction is Forever

1996: Steve Tomecek

W.H. Freeman and Company

Bouncing & Bending Light

1995: Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy

Crown Publishers, Inc.

The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space

1994: Wendy Baker, Andrew Haslam, and Alexandra Parsons

Macmillan

Make it Work!

1993: Gail Gibbons

Holiday House

Stargazers

1992: Gloria Skurzynski

Bradbury Press

Almost The Real Thing

1991: Richard Maurer

Simon & Schuster Inc.

Airborne

1990: David Macaulay

Houghton Mifflin Company

The Way Things Work

1989: Gail Kay Haines

Putnam & Grosset

Micromysteries

1988: Susan Kovacs Buxbaum, Rita Golden Graham, and Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Basic Books

Splash! All About Baths

Past Winner: Broadcast Media

2009: Tom Shachtman and David Dugan

Windfall Films in collaboration with Meridian Productions and broadcast on WGBH/NOVA in association with TPT/Twin Cities Public Television

"Absolute Zero"

2008: Julia Cort

WGBH/NOVA scienceNOW

"Asteroid"

2007: Jim Handman, Pat Senson, and Bob McDonald

CBC Radio

"Multiple Worlds, Parallel Universes"

2006: David Kestenbaum

National Public Radio

"Einstein's Miraculous Year: How Smart was Einstein?"

2005: Jon Palfreman

WNET New York

"Innovation: Light Speed"

2004: William S. Hammack

"Public Radio Pieces" WILL-AM Radio

2003: Jim Handman, Pat Senson, and Bob McDonald

CBC Radio

"It's About Time"

2002: David Kestenbaum

National Public Radio

"Measuring Muons" (RealMedia file)

2001: Jon Palfreman

WGBH- Frontline/NOVA

"What's Up with the Weather?"

2000: Craig Heaps

KTVU- TV

Time & Space

Space Weather

1999: Dan Falk

CBC Radio

From Empedocles to Einstein

1998: Sandy Rathbun and Dave Greenleaf

KVOA-TV

Asteroid: The Real Story

References

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