Pressroom

Laura Helmuth is editor in chief of Scientific American. She has previously been health and science editor at the Washington Post, digital news director at National Geographic, science and health editor at Slate, science editor at Smithsonian, and a news editor and reporter at Science. Helmuth is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s standing committee on advancing science communication. She serves on the advisory boards of SciLine (a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that connects reporters with scientific experts), the Transmitter and 500 Women Scientists. Helmuth has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the University of California, Santa Cruz’s science communication program. She speaks frequently on science communication, and ways to use social media effectively and fight misinformation. Her favorite hobbies are bird-watching, hiking and kayaking.

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic’s Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master’s degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.

Meghan Bartels is a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Scientific American in 2023 and is now a senior news reporter. Previously, she spent more than four years as a writer and editor at Space.com, as well as nearly a year as a science reporter at Newsweek, where she focused on space and Earth science. Her writing has also appeared in Audubon, Nautilus, Astronomy and Smithsonian, among other publications. She attended Georgetown University and earned a master’s in journalism at New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

Sunya Bhutta is an audience-development strategist and chief audience engagement editor at Scientific American. Her role includes managing Scientific American’s home page, social media, newsletters, mobile app and events. Previously she was associate editor at Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. Her work has also been published in Time Out New York, Chronogram and Hudson Valley magazine. She has a B.A. in English and journalism from the State University of New York at New Paltz and studied magazine and website publishing at New York University.

Lee Billings is a senior editor covering space and physics for Scientific American. His freelance writing has appeared in many popular publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired and Popular Mechanics. Billings is author of Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life among the Stars, which won an American Institute of Physics science writing award in the books category in 2014. He holds a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.

Jen Christiansen is author of Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations (CRC Press) and senior graphics editor at Scientific American, where she art directs and produces illustrated explanatory diagrams and data visualizations. In 1996 she began her publishing career in New York City at Scientific American. Subsequently she moved to Washington, D.C., to join the staff of National Geographic (first as an assistant art director–researcher hybrid and then as a designer), spent four years as a freelance science communicator and returned to Scientific American in 2007. Christiansen presents and writes on topics ranging from reconciling her love for art and science to her quest to learn more about the pulsar chart on the cover of Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures. She holds a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in geology and studio art from Smith College.

Jeffery DelViscio is chief multimedia editor at Scientific American. Previously he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He helped co-found STAT, where he was the first director of multimedia and creative, and oversaw all interactive journalism. While there, his team won many national awards, including a George Polk Award for environmental reporting in a collaboration with Undark Magazine. He started his journalism career at the New York Times, where he worked across five different desks over a period of eight and a half years. His work has won numerous awards, including two News and Documentary Emmy Awards. He holds dual master’s degrees in journalism and in earth and environmental sciences from Columbia University. Before entering journalism, DelViscio worked onboard oceanographic research vessels and tracked money and politics in science from Washington, D.C.

Arminda Downey-Mavromatis is associate engagement editor at Scientific American. She works on audience engagement, which includes managing Scientific American’s home page and social media, as well as engagement projects. Previously she was senior editorial project manager at Chemical & Engineering News. She has a B.A. in biochemistry from Barnard College of Columbia University. While in undergrad, she was an editor at the Eye, the magazine of the Columbia Daily Spectator.

Mark Fischetti oversees coverage of sustainability issues for Scientific American magazine, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits features and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in all those formats. He edits the History column, which highlights novel stories the magazine has published over its long history. He has been part of small teams that started and then edited two spin-off magazines, Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die? now has 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. With Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, he co-authored the book Weaving the Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine and of Family Business magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. Fischetti is a frequent broadcaster and has appeared on CNN, NBC’s Meet the Press, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations.

Josh Fischman is a senior editor at Scientific American, leading coverage of medicine and of science policy from Washington, D.C. He co-hosts the COVID, Quickly podcast. His work has been selected for the Best American Science Writing 2012 anthology, and he has won the Blakeslee Award for excellence in medical reporting and other writing awards. He has written cover stories for National Geographic and U.S. News & World Report, as well as features for Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times. As an editor, Fischman has been fortunate to work on many stories that have won top journalism prizes. He has been editor in chief of Earth magazine and deputy editor in chief of Chemical & Engineering News, supervising worldwide coverage. He has directed technology and science coverage for the Chronicle of Higher Education and was a senior writer and editor at U.S News & World Report, a deputy news editor at Science and a senior editor at Discover. Fischman has been interviewed about science and medicine on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, BBC World Service and the Weather Channel, and he has been a master of ceremonies on stages at the USA Science & Engineering Festival and the Consumer Electronics Show. He is author of a leading medical education guidebook entitled The U.S. News & World Report Ultimate Guide to Medical Schools (Sourcebooks, 2006).

Seth Fletcher is chief features editor at Scientific American. His second book, Einstein’s Shadow (Ecco, 2018), on the Event Horizon Telescope and the quest to take the first picture of a black hole, was named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Pick and received positive reviews in Kirkus (which gave it a starred review), Nature, Science, Wired and other outlets. His first book, Bottled Lightning, on the lithium-ion battery and the rebirth of the electric car, was published in 2011 by Hill and Wang. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times, Popular Science, Fortune, Men’s Journal, Outside and other publications. His television and radio appearances have included CBS’s Face the Nation, MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show, the BBC World Service, and NPR’s Fresh Air, Morning Edition, Science Friday, Marketplace and The Takeaway. He has a master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism and bachelor’s degrees in English and philosophy from the University of Missouri.

Andrea Gawrylewski is chief newsletter editor at Scientific American. She writes the daily Today in Science newsletter and oversees all other newsletters at the magazine. In addition, she manages all special collector’s editions and in the past was editor of Scientific American Mind, Scientific American Space & Physics and Scientific American Health & Medicine. Gawrylewski got her start in journalism at the Scientist magazine, where she was a features writer and editor for “hot” research papers in the life sciences. She spent more than six years in educational publishing, editing books for higher education in biology, environmental science and nutrition. She holds a master’s degree in earth science and a master’s degree in journalism, both from Columbia University, home of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Ben Guarino is an associate technology editor at Scientific American. He writes and edits stories about artificial intelligence, robotics and our relationship with our tools. Previously, he worked as a science editor at Popular Science and a staff writer at the Washington Post, where he covered the COVID pandemic, science policy and misinformation (and also dinosaur bones and water bears). He has a degree in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

Kelso Harper is an award-nominated multimedia editor at Scientific American. They produce, direct and film short documentaries and social videos and help produce, host and edit SciAm’s podcast Science, Quickly. They received a bachelor's in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, they worked with Wired, Science, Popular Mechanics and MIT News.

Tanya Lewis is a senior editor covering health and medicine at Scientific American. She co-hosts the podcast Your Health, Quickly. Previously, she worked as an assistant news editor at Scientific American and an associate editor at Scientific American Mind, and she has written for Wired, Science News, the Scientist, Business Insider and Live Science. She holds a graduate degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Brown University.

Sarah Lewin Frasier is Scientific American’s assistant news editor. She plans, assigns and edits the Advances section of the monthly magazine, as well as editing online news. Before joining Scientific American in 2019, she chronicled humanity’s journey to the stars as associate editor at Space.com. (And even earlier, she was a print intern at Scientific American.) Frasier holds an A.B. in mathematics from Brown University and an M.A. in journalism from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She enjoys musical theater and mathematical paper craft.

Amanda Montañez is a graphics editor working in both digital and print media. She produces and art directs information graphics and occasionally writes content for Scientific American. Previously, she worked as a freelance medical illustrator, and her projects included a patient education website for midwifery clients and illustrations for edX’s online cell biology course. Montañez has a graduate degree in biomedical communications from the University of Toronto and a B.A. in studio art from Smith College.

Clara Moskowitz is a senior editor who covers astronomy, physics, spaceflight and mathematics for Scientific American. Previously, she spent five years at Space.com, where she was assistant managing editor. Moskowitz has a graduate degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University.

Michael Mrak is creative director of Scientific American. He and his team establish the visual language for the brand and produce its award-winning graphic design, illustrations, photography and information graphics. He was not always a science journalist, having designed for magazines as disparate as Esquire and Architectural Record, but his love of science led him to work for Discover magazine and to produce award-winning design for that publication as well. Always curious, he works on and builds cars, is an illustrator and practices fencing in his off time.

Madhusree Mukerjee is a senior editor at Scientific American. She works mainly on features, with a focus on the many ways in which science and society interact. One of her more recent interests is neuroscience. Mukerjee has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago and received a Guggenheim Fellowship to research and write her first book, The Land of Naked People (2003), on the Andaman Islanders. She has also authored Churchill's Secret War (2010), an economic history of World War II in British India.

Allison Parshall is an associate news editor at Scientific American who often covers biology, health, technology and physics. She edits the magazine’s Contributors column and has previously edited the Advances section. As a multimedia journalist, Parshall contributes to Scientific American’s podcast Science, Quickly. Her work includes a three-part miniseries on music-making artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Quanta Magazine and Inverse. Parshall graduated from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute with a master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Georgetown University.

Megha Satyanarayana oversees the opinion and analysis section of Scientific American. Before that, she was a reporter who covered several aspects of health and medicine, including public health, life sciences, and biotech and pharma for multiple news outlets. She has also served as an engagement editor. She has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a B.S. in biology from Tufts University. She is also a graduate of the science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jen Schwartz is a senior editor of features at Scientific American who produces stories on the intersection of technology and society. She specializes in writing about how people and systems are adapting to climate change, automation and disinformation. Her article “Underwater,” about a New Jersey community that is radically adapting to sea-level rise, won a 2019 Science in Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers. Schwartz previously worked as an editor or reporter at Popular Science, GQ, New York Magazine, Outside, Self and the Boston Globe. She has extensive media experience and has led discussions at the Tribeca Film Festival, the World Economic Forum, and events held by the United Nations, 3M and others. She holds a B.S. in journalism, with a minor in environmental science, from Boston University.

Gary Stix has worked for more than 30 years at Scientific American. He is currently a senior editor covering neuroscience. He has frequently been the issue or section editor for special issues of the magazine. He also reports and commissions articles on a variety of other topics, ranging from nanotechnology to obesity. Prior to working at Scientific American, Stix spent three years as a science journalist at IEEE Spectrum. He and his wife wrote a general primer on technology in 1999 entitled Who Gives a Gigabyte?

Andrea Thompson is an associate editor covering sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to joining Scientific American, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a B.S. and an M.S. in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dan Vergano has been a senior opinion editor at Scientific American since 2023. He was previously a science reporter and editor at Grid News, BuzzFeed News, National Geographic and USA Today (where he was science reporter for 14 years). He wrote a weekly science column, “Science Snapshots,” for USA Today for seven years and has written freelance reports for the Washington Post, Men’s Health, Science, New Scientist, Science News, Air & Space Magazine, and others. Vergano is chair of the New Horizons committee for the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and a journalism award judge for both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He taught journalism as an adjunct professor at New York University from 2012 to 2014 and was a 2007–2008 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, where he studied the intersection of politics and science. He has won the 2011 Gene S. Stuart Award from the Society for American Archeology and the 2006 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism from the American Geophysical Union, and he was a finalist for 2001 Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award. Vergano has a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University. He worked as a space policy analyst for a federal-funded research and development center prior to starting his reporting career.

Dean Visser joined Scientific American in 2016. Previously he worked as news editor at Al Jazeera America’s New York City headquarters for three years. Prior to that he spent more than two decades in Asia as a foreign correspondent, bureau chief and regional desk editor for the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (the German Press Agency) and United Press International. Much of his recent editorial work has focused on health, medical science and drug policy issues, such as the opioid epidemic and the implications of drug law reform in the U.S. Overseas, he spent extensive time in the field covering international disease outbreaks, including SARS and bird flu, natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, and environmental crises such as the severe smoke haze caused by massive illegal fires set to clear forested land in Indonesia each dry season. He has served as president of the Singapore-based Foreign Correspondents Association and holds a journalism degree from Seattle University.

Kate Wong is a senior editor covering paleontology, anthropology, archaeology and animal behavior, among other topics, at Scientific American. She is co-author, with Donald C. Johanson, of Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins.