AGU welcomes entries for 2014 journalism awards

This year, AGU plans to present the two awards listed below. The authoritative statements of the rules governing these awards and the awards’ nomination forms are available at the included links:

• The David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—News, recognizing excellence in science news reporting, generally produced under deadline pressure of one week or less. It is named for David Perlman, Science Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. (nomination form)

• The Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—Features, recognizing excellence in science feature reporting, generally produced under a deadline of longer than one week. It is named for the late Walter Sullivan of The New York Times, who was the first recipient of the award. (nomination form)

The Perlman and Sullivan awards each honor specific stories reported by journalists in the past year (i.e. 2014 awards honor 2013 stories). Journalists are welcome to nominate their own work for these awards or someone may nominate a story on the reporter’s behalf. Each award consists of a plaque and a $5,000 stipend.

For the Perlman and Sullivan awards, nominations may be from any country, in any language (English translation required), and in any news medium, except books. Entries will be judged by how well they meet one or more of the following three criteria: brings new information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public's attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, and makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences, without sacrificing accuracy.

Another AGU journalism award, the Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism will not be presented in 2014. The Cowen Award, which recognizes journalists who have made significant, lasting, and consistent contributions to accurate reporting on the Earth and space sciences for the general public, is only presented every other year, so it will next be given in 2015.

The deadline to submit nominations for AGU’s 2014 journalism awards is 15 March 2014. AGU will present the awards on 17 December 2014 at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

Questions? Please contact Peter Weiss, AGU Public Information Manager, at pweiss@agu.org, or +1 202-777-7507.

The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing more than 62,000 members in 142 countries. Join our conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media channels.