Martha Mendoza was cited as a finalist in the 2011 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards for her sweeping Associated Press report to gauge the effectiveness of freedom of information (FOI) laws adopted by countries worldwide. On a year-long reporting stint in Mexico City, Mendoza learned to use the country's new FOI laws. This inspired her to find out what other countries had similar laws and to encourage other reporters to use them. Mendoza's report synthesized the outcomes of FOI requests filed by 140 AP reporters from around the world. Read more about her investigation in this SciCom news story.

Lisa Strong is video producer for the education and outreach team in summer 2011 on ocean expedition AT18-07 aboard the R/V Atlantis. Co-principal investigator Andrew Fisher of UC Santa Cruz is leading the expedition to the Juan de Fuca plate in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. The scientists will study the flow and chemistry of water moving through the ocean crust, as well as look for life forms that live in the rock below the seafloor. They'll collect data and run experiments using the ROV Jason, which has HD video cameras, lights, and manipulator arms run by human pilots on the Atlantis. The education and outreach team will blog and produce live webcasts and video.

Robert Irion, program director, spoke at the National Press Club on June 21, 2011, as an invited panelist in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual Space Weather Enterprise Forum. Rob discussed public awareness of solar physics and space weather, topics he explored in an April 2011 feature article in Smithsonian.

Congratulations to these lecturers for recent journalism honors:

Ken McLaughlin, winner of a first-place award in the 2011 Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards, sponsored by the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club, for coverage of the California governor's race; and an award (with photojournalist Dai Sugano) for best video in the California Newspaper Publisher's Association 2011 contest for "Torn Apart," a chronicle of the yearlong struggle by a San Mateo woman to keep her family together as she fought deportation to Mexico.

Martha Mendoza, winner of the 2010 Science in Society Journalism Award (pdf download) in Science Reporting from the National Association of Science Writers for her Associated Press series, "When Drugs Stop Working," with Margie Mason.

Peter Aldhous, winner of the 2010 prize for Best Investigative Journalism from the Association of British Science Writers for his 25 March 2009 feature in New Scientist, "How My Genome Was Hacked" (pdf download), with Michael Reilly. 

Robert Irion, winner of the 2010 David N. Schramm Award in High-Energy Astrophysics Journalism from the American Astronomical Society for his April 2008 feature in Smithsonian, "Homing in on Black Holes."