This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
The graduate program in science writing at Johns Hopkins is housed along with the highly-ranked graduate programs in fiction and poetry in The Writing Seminars. So the science writing at Hopkins focuses not only on balanced and substantive reporting, but also on the craft and quality of writing. The program, which began in the early 1980's, is now taught by Ann Finkbeiner and David Grimm. The first semester always includes a distinguished cast of visitors.
The graduates (linked to their recent work) include Terry Monmaney (Smithsonian), Christine Gorman (Time, now Scientific American), Adam Marcus (Retraction Watch) Nell Greenfieldboyce (NPR), Geoff Brumfiel (Nature), Virginia Hughes (freelance), Sally Adee (New Scientist), Cassandra Willyard (freelance), Erin Wayman (Smithsonian), among many others. A number of graduates -- Deborah Rudacille, Emma Marris, Elizabeth deVita-Raeburn, Chip Brantley, Jason Bardi, among others -- have written books.
Recent graduates seem to cover the range of professional possibilities -- and these examples are representative only of the possibilities, not of the graduates.
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Mary Caperton Morton ('08) freelances for High Country News and Smithsonian, and writes a travel/geology column for Earth. She's also a professional photographer and her blog, Travels with the Blonde Coyote, combines writing with beautiful visuals.
Devin Powell ('08) is on staff at Science News, where he covers geology and physics.
Eliza Barclay ('10) received, among several fellowships, one from the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to spend some months reporting in China. Her story on this was run on NPR, where she's a reporter and blog host.
Sujata Gupta ('10) freelances for Wired, Psychology Today, ScienceNOW, and Earth Magazine, and is a correspondent for New Scientist, where she writes about many and varied things.
Ellen Gray ('11) is an earth sciences writer for NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
Current students are freelancing madly: within one semester, Jay Thompson, Sara Bloom Leeds, Sean Treacy, and Emily Underwood have all had short stories in Earth and/or ScienceNow.