Dr. Robin George Andrews is an exemplary journalist with the rare ability to convey complicated scientific concepts in elegant, accessible prose for a general readership. His award-winning National Geographic article on recent research around the fatal 1959 Dyatlov Pass expedition provided our readers with a thoughtful look at the hard science that transcended the myriad of conspiracy theories around the notorious event.

Robin holds a doctorate in experimental volcanology and has drawn on his background for articles published in the New York Times, Scientific American, the Atlantic, Nature, Science, Discover, CNN, WIRED, and other important mass-market outlets with international reach. Robin also provides important outreach on scientific topics for television news, as well as public lectures. In addition to the 2022 AGU David Perlman Award, he has been recognized as the European Geosciences Union’s 2022 Angela Croome Award winner for continued, excellent and successful reporting of Earth, space and planetary science topics.

Robin’s work includes notable essays in the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Best American Science and Nature Writing and multiple honorable mentions and top picks on Science Shortform’s best science journalism roundups. His 2021 book Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond is (at the time of writing) the #2 book on geophysics on Amazon and a testament to Robin’s ability to engage general audiences with scientific topics. His forthcoming book How to Kill an Asteroid is a timely, nonsensational look at the threats that we face beyond our planet. Journalists like Robin who have the knowledge, enthusiasm and skill to create lively accounts firmly grounded in science will be our best front line in a world of increasing scientific mis- and disinformation.

— Kristin Romey
National Geographic
Washington, D.C.

Writers get their inspiration from a variety of sources, but I tend to find mine in the modern mythology that is pop culture — from The Legend of Zelda to The Expanse. But above all else, I look to Doctor Who, especially when it’s at its magical realism best. Time travel is a powerful tool, one allowing anyone to tell beguiling stories about the incongruous cosmos we inhabit. Science journalism isn’t that different from time travel. Anyone with this occupation gets to write about people and places that exist not only in the present but in the most distant past and in any of the many futures that may come to pass. We get to tell tales of dramatic things that, despite being grounded in reality, can be more fantastical than anything we could find in fiction. The Eleventh Doctor once said this: “We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know, it was the best: a daft old man, who stole a magic box and ran away.” Science journalists, especially those on the wonder beat — a beat that I firmly enjoy inhabiting — don’t have any magic boxes that can travel through space or time. But we do have our words, rearranged in a way that, if we’re lucky, lights up our readers’ minds and brings a smile to their face by transporting them somewhere, well, magical. The world is frequently terrifying; things often seem precarious and beyond our control. There are an army of talented and tireless reporters, scattered across the planet, covering stories of war, inequality, prejudice, climate change and oppression every day of every week, sometimes at great personal risk. We’re all fortunate to have them. But we also need wonder in our lives. This award, which I’m deeply honored and humbled to have received, may be for a story suffused with macabre elements. But solving such a long-standing mystery was only possible thanks to the unyielding curiosity of the scientific sleuths that took the case on —well that and the movie Frozen. All of us — scientists, journalists, everyone — want to know how the world works, how the universe operates. It’s a strange place to find ourselves. It's wondrous. That I get to play the role of tour guide, taking readers on remarkable journeys through it, is one of the greatest joys of my life. — Robin George Andrew  Freelance Science Journalist