PHOTO: PEDRO PARDO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES1570 24 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6575 science.org SCIENCE2021 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards announced
Six entries dealing with aspects of the continuing global COVID-19
pandemic are among the winners of the 2021 AAAS Kavli Science
Journalism Awards. Other winners dealt with important issues of
equity and ethics in the conduct of science.
The international awards, administered by the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, recognize distinguished
science reporting for a general audience. A Gold Award ($5000) and
a Silver Award ($3500) are presented in each of eight categories.
The pandemic-related winners include a widely shared multime-
dia piece by Mariano Zafra and Javier Salas for Madrid’s El País on
how readily the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can spread via
aerosols in a living room, a bar, and a classroom; a piece for Wired by
Megan Molteni on the historically flawed science behind the World
Health Organization’s initial guidance that the coronavirus spreads
primarily via droplets from coughing rather than exhaled aerosol
particles; and a sensitive account by Maartje Bakker of Amsterdam’s
De Volkskrant on the life—and death—of two rhesus monkeys used
in research to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
In a winning video entry, NOVA producer Arlo Pérez Esquivel told
of leaving his home in Boston to stay with family in Uruapan, Mexico,
because he felt he would be safer from COVID-19. Instead, he soon
realized that people were dying all around him and that cases of the
disease were being seriously underreported in Mexico.
Among entries that delved into the equity and conduct of science,
“Picture a Scientist,” a documentary produced for NOVA on PBS,
won for its exploration of long-standing patterns of discrimination
against women in science and the determined efforts of biologist
Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Wil-
lenbring to help change that.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s science program “Quirks & Quarks” won
for a special on the past and future of Black people in the sciences,
including the history of biased and false “race science” that led
to their mistreatment and misunderstanding by the scientific and
medical communities.
Richard Van Noorden of Nature was honored for a piece on ethical
questions surrounding the use of facial-recognition research, includ-
ing the use of trained algorithms to distinguish faces of predomi-
nantly Muslim Uyghur people in China.
Winning entries also explored the beauty and mysteries of nature.
Aathira Perinchery, writing for “FiftyTwo” —a digital publication
based in India—explored deep questions about evolutionary biology
while reporting on the diversity of new species being discovered in
India. She is the first Indian journalist to win the AAAS Kavli award
since the contest went global in 2015. Zafra and Salas also are the
first journalists at a Spanish outlet to win the award.
Tony Bartelme of The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., won
his second AAAS Kavli award for a story about an elusive marsh-
dwelling bird called the eastern black rail and one researcher’s
efforts to study and protect it. Michael Werner also won his second
AAAS Kavli award as part of a video team that produced segments
for PBS on endangered prairie and forest habitats. Stephen Ornes
won for the second time in the Children’s Science News category.
“Congratulations to the talented journalists who enlightened their
audiences about the science of the global pandemic, about efforts
to diversify and strengthen the research enterprise, and about the
beauty and complexity of the natural world,” said Sudip Parikh, CEO
of AAAS and executive publisher of the Science family of journals.
“These awards continue to spotlight the value of informed, thought-
provoking journalism.”
Independent panels of science journalists select the winners. The
awards program, endowed by The Kavli Foundation, drew entries
from 47 countries in this year’s contest. The winners will receive
their awards in a virtual ceremony held in conjunction with the 2022
AAAS Annual Meeting in February.AAAS NEWS & NOTES
Reports from the ongoing pandemic highlighted the entries
By Earl Lane and Emily Hughes
A vaccination center in Mexico, a country that was the focus of one award winner.