Now in its 34th year, CASW's Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award was created to recognise the contributions to journalism of Ev Clark and Seth Payne.
The Prize
The award aims to encourage young science writers by recognising outstanding reporting and writing in any field of science. The 2023 winner will receive US$ 1,000 and expenses to attend the ScienceWriters2023 conference to receive the award.
The award is given in memory of Ev Clark, a veteran Business Week journalist, The New York Times e Newsweekand Seth Payne, his long-time friend and colleague at Business Week and one of the founders of the award. It is intended to continue the work of both men, who have offered friendship and advice to generations of young journalists. We welcome donations for the Evert Clark Fund.
The submissions are judged by a panel of science writers and scientists selected by CASW and the award is presented at the ScienceWriters annual meeting along with other awards given by CASW and the National Association of Science Writers.
Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award winners
- 2023 – Sarah Kaplan, from the Washington Post.
- 2022 - Sabrina Imblerby articles published in the The New York Times
- 2021 - Nicholas St Fleur, STAT
- 2020 – Katherine J. Wu, The New York Times.
- 2019 - Ryan Cross, Chemical Engineering and Engineering News
- 2018 - Joshua Sokolfor freelance articles in the Quanta Magazine, Mosaic, Nova Next e The Atlantic
- 2017 - Eric Boodman, STAT
- 2016 - Natalie Wolchover, Magazine Quanta
- 2015 - Madhumita Venkataramananfreelance for reports in Wired and the BBC
- 2014 - Azeen Ghorayshifor freelance articles in the East Bay Express e Newsweek
- 2013 - Megan Scudellari, freelance, for stories in MATTER, The Scientist, Discover and DoubleXScience
- 2012 - Gayathri Vaidyanathan, freelance, for stories at Nature, Greenwire e Energywire
- 2011 - Christine Peterson, Cásper Star-Tribune
- 2010 - Amber Dance, freelance, for stories in the Los Angeles Times, Nature Medicine e Nature
- 2009 - Alicia Chang, Associated Press
- 2008 - Elizabeth Svoboda, freelance, for stories in Popular Science, Discover, Psychology Today e Salon
- 2007 - Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times.
- 2006 - Combined with 2005
- 2005 - Nicholas Zamiska, The Wall Street Journal [Awarded for 2005-2006 because of AAAS move to ScienceWriters meeting]
- 2004 - Kara Platoni, East Bay Express.
- 2003 - Jennifer Couzin, Science
- 2002 - Lila Guterman, The Chronicle of Higher Education
- 2001 - Evan Ratliff, from Wired
- 2000 - Joel P. Engardio, San Francisco Weekly
- 1999 - Kathryn S. Brown, freelance.
- 1998 - Nell Boyce, new scientist.
- 1997 - David Kestenbaum, freelance
- 1996 - Michael Milstein, Billings Gazette.
- 1995 - Richard Stone, Discover
- 1994 - Carl Zimmer, Discover
- 1993 - Robert Langreth, popular scientist.
- 1992 - Elizabeth Corcoran, freelance.
- 1991 - Karen Wright, freelance.
- 1990 - Malcolm Gladwell, The Washington Post.
- 1989 - Leslie Vreeland, Money
Rules and eligibility
The award is limited to non-technical journalism, both in print and online. Articles published in newspapers (including university newspapers), magazines, newsletters and websites are eligible. Both freelancers and staff writers are eligible (books as well as articles in technical journals and trade association publications are not eligible).
Scientific writing includes, but is not limited to, writing in the biological, physical, environmental, computer and space sciences, along with technology, maths, health and science policy.
Entries will be judged on accuracy, clarity, wit, fairness, resourcefulness and timeliness.
Candidates must be aged 30 or under. The 2023 prize will be limited to candidates whose 31st birthday is 1st July 2023 or later.
Entries for the 2023 prize will be accepted from 1 January 2023. Entries must be submitted online via the Submittable and received by 30th June 2023.
Candidates can submit a single article or series, or up to four individual works. Articles must be published between 1st July 2022 and 30th June 2023, but an entire series will be accepted if most of the parts are published between these dates. Entries can be submitted by the author or on their behalf. All entries must be submitted in English.
Get in touch with Sylvia Kantor in case of doubt.
