Pressroom
Press Inquiries
For interview requests, corporate and trade press, contact:
Kevin Hurler
Communications Manager
New York
Contact by E-mail
Eseohe Arhebamen-Yamasaki
Head of Communications, U.S.
Contact by E-mail
Expert Directory
Scientific American editors are available on request for media interviews. Offering expertise in a wide range of specialties and practiced at translating science into plain English, Scientific American editors are the ideal expert guests to comment on science news of the day. Many are media trained, including in broadcast and radio, and have extensive interview experience.Scientific American editors are available on request for media interviews. Offering expertise in a wide range of specialties and practiced at translating science into plain English, Scientific American editors are the ideal expert guests to comment on science news of the day. Many are media trained, including in broadcast and radio, and have extensive interview experience.
David M. Ewalt
Editor in Chief
David M. Ewalt is editor in chief of Scientific American and an award-winning journalist, author and speaker. He has appeared as an expert guest on a variety of live programs, including Good Morning America, Closing Bell, Morning Joe, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, as well as others around the world. He’s been quoted as an expert source by a variety of news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, the Guardian, Australia’s Courier-Mail and China’s People’s Daily. He’s been invited to speak to world-class organizations, including Google, Microsoft and Sony, and has presented at major conferences, including CES, BookExpo, Web Summit, South by Southwest, PAX, E3, New York Comic Con and Gen Con.
Ewalt holds a degree in anthropology from Stony Brook University and is an authority of the intersection of technology and gaming. His most recent book, Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution, is an exploration of the history, development and future of immersive technologies. He is also the author of Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It, a best-selling history of one of the most influential games of our time.
He previously served as editor in chief of Gizmodo and as an editor at the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Forbes.
Key areas of expertise: Science news, policy and education; emerging technologies; space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence; augmented and virtual reality; games and leisure; news, journalism and the media business.
Jeanna Bryner
Executive Editor
Jeanna Bryner is executive 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.
Key areas of expertise: Chemistry, biogeochemistry, archaeology and environmental sciences.
Meghan Bartels
Senior Reporter
Meghan Bartels is a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Scientific American in 2023 and is now a senior 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.
Key areas of expertise: Bird flu, solar activity, COVID vaccines, current NASA science missions and NASA’s Artemis program.
Deni Ellis Béchard
Senior Writer/Technology
Deni Ellis Béchard covers the effect of artificial intelligence on the arts and sciences. He began writing about AI in 2019, and his latest book, We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine, explores its transformational power. Since 2006 he has published 10 books of fiction and nonfiction, earning a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and a Midwest Book Award. His work has appeared on Oprah’s summer reading list and as an Indie Next List pick. His book Of Bonobos and Men, about conservation biology, won a Nautilus Book Award Grand Prize, and his novel Into the Sun was named one of the year’s most important books by CBC/Radio Canada. A former senior writer at Stanford Magazine, he has reported from India, Cuba, Rwanda, Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan. His journalism, fiction and photography have appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Paris Review, Foreign Policy and many other outlets. He holds three master’s degrees, including one in biology from Harvard University, where he studied AI in research design. He has spoken widely on radio and TV and at institutions such as the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the United Nations.
Key areas of expertise: AI and society; AI and art; AI and literature; generative AI media and deepfakes; and conservation biology and biology
Lee Billings
Senior Desk Editor/Physical Science
Lee Billings is a senior desk editor covering physical sciences 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.
Key areas of expertise: Astrobiology, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, extraterrestrial life, physical sciences, planetary science, spaceflight, space science and exploration.
Jen Christiansen
Acting Chief of Design & Senior Graphics Editor
Jen Christiansen is author of Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations (CRC Press) and acting chief of design and a senior graphics editor at Scientific American, where she art directs and produces illustrated explanatory diagrams and data visualizations. She began her publishing career at Scientific American in 1996. She later worked at National Geographic (first as an assistant art director–researcher hybrid and then as a designer), spent four years as a freelance science communicator and then returned to Scientific American in 2007. Christiansen 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.
Key areas of expertise: Scientific American’s archive, visual science communication, information design, data visualization and scientific illustration.
Jeffery DelViscio
Chief Multimedia Editor
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.
Key areas of expertise: Weather, climate change, digital technology, imaging, deepfakes, visual and audio-focused generative AI.
Josh Fischman
Senior Editor/Special Projects
Josh Fischman is a senior editor for special projects at Scientific American magazine, leading coverage of medicine and science policy from Washington, D.C. He co-hosted the publication’s popular podcast Your Health, Quickly. His work has been selected for the Best American Science Writing 2012 anthology, and he has won a 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 and features for Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Previously, Fischman was editor in chief of Earth magazine and deputy editor in chief of Chemical & Engineering News and he held senior positions at Science and Discover. He has been interviewed about science and medicine on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, BBC World Service and the Weather Channel. He has been a master of ceremonies on stages at the USA Science & Engineering Festival and the Consumer Electronics Show. Fischman is author of a medical education guidebook, The U.S. News & World Report Ultimate Guide to Medical Schools (Sourcebooks, 2006). He holds a B.A. with high honors in anthropology from Wesleyan University.
Key areas of expertise: Alzheimer’s disease and neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s; psychology; genetics; vaccines; the immune system; autoimmune diseases; public health; heart disease; human origins and fossils; paleontology; dinosaurs; geology and earthquakes.
Seth Fletcher
Director of Editorial Content
Seth Fletcher is director of editorial content at Scientific American. His most recent book, Einstein’s Shadow (Ecco, 2018), followed the astronomers of the Event Horizon Telescope in their successful quest to take the first picture of a black hole. It was excerpted in the New York Times Magazine and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Pick. His first book, Bottled Lightning (Hill and Wang, 2011), is about the invention of the lithium-ion battery and the rebirth of the electric car. In addition to his writing for Scientific American, his work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Opinion, Popular Science and other national publications. Media highlights include appearances on CBS’s Face the Nation, NPR’s Fresh Air, the BBC World Service and NPR’s 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.
Key areas of expertise: Renewable energy, electric vehicles, critical minerals, battery technology and black holes.
Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor
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 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.
Key areas of expertise: Earth science; trees and tree rings; misinformation; the science of body size and health; content curation; newsletter writing; and audience development.
Joseph Howlett
Staff Reporter
Joseph Howlett is a staff reporter at Scientific American, where he covers all areas of science with a focus on physics and mathematics. Before that, he was math staff writer at Quanta Magazine for a year and a half. His freelance writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Future, Gizmodo and elsewhere. He has a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University and a master’s degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Key areas of expertise: Pure mathematics, applied mathematics, physical sciences, particle physics, astrophysics, climate science, planetary science and weather.
Brianne Kane
Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Brianne Kane is associate editor for books and rights manager at Scientific American. She previously reviewed books for BUST Magazine and Electric Literature and was an author publicist at a boutique publicity firm for three years. She can speak to publishing trends and anticipated books, as well as Scientific American’s legacy of book reviews and our year-end lists of Staff Favorite Books, Best Fiction and Best Nonfiction.
Key areas of expertise: Publishing industry, books, authors, science fiction, literary fiction and nonfiction.
Tanya Lewis
Senior Desk Editor/Health & Medicine
Tanya Lewis is senior desk editor for health and medicine at Scientific American, where she leads a team of two editors/reporters. During the COVID pandemic, she led the magazine’s news coverage of the outbreak, responding quickly and comprehensively with nuanced explainers on the evolving science and public health impacts. She covers medical advances and health-related developments that directly affect peoples’ lives, including infectious disease outbreaks, reproductive health and organ transplantation. She produces Scientific American’s weekly health and medicine newsletter, is a regular contributor to the magazine’s podcast Science Quickly and makes media appearances on NPR affiliates and other outlets. She has held many roles at Scientific American, including associate health editor, assistant news editor and associate editor at Scientific American Mind. She previously worked at the Scientist, Business Insider and Live Science, and her work has appeared in Wired, Science News and other outlets. She holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Brown University and a graduate degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Key areas of expertise: Epidemiology, infectious disease, biomedical engineering, brain health/disease, reproductive health/abortion and public health.
Sarah Lewin Frasier
Senior Editor
Sarah Lewin Frasier is a senior editor at Scientific American. She plans, assigns and edits the Advances section of the monthly magazine, spearheads Scientific American’s Games section and math puzzles, coordinates its internship program and edits news and analysis across all beats. 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.
Key areas of expertise: Math, astronomy, space exploration, computer modeling and analysis.
Amanda Montañez
Senior Graphics Editor
Amanda Montañez is a senior graphics editor who focuses primarily on data visualizations and explanatory graphics for Scientific American news stories. Her work spans topics from health and medicine to sociology, climate and math. Before joining Scientific American in 2015, she worked as a freelance medical illustrator, and her projects included a patient education resource 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.
Key areas of expertise: Medical and scientific illustration, data visualization, information design and science communication.
Clara Moskowitz
Chief of Reporters
Clara Moskowitz is chief of reporters and 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.
Key areas of expertise: Space, astronomy, physics, astrophysics, quantum physics, particle physics, spaceflight, space exploration and mathematics.
Allison Parshall
Associate Editor/Mind & Brain
Allison Parshall is an associate editor covering mind and brain at Scientific American. 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.
Key areas of expertise: Cognitive neuroscience; consciousness science; brain-reading technology; music and the brain; autism spectrum disorder; LGBTQ+ mental health and linguistics.
Megha Satyanarayana
Chief Special Projects Editor
Megha Satyanarayana oversees large projects at Scientific American, including data-driven initiatives and investigative journalism. Before that, she was an editor and reporter for daily and weekly news outlets, where she covered public health, life sciences, and biotech and pharma. 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 a graduate of the science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Key areas of expertise: Life sciences, public health, medicine, drug development, clinical trials, environmental health, mental health and child development.
Eric Sullivan
Senior Desk Editor/Technology & Engineering
Eric Sullivan is senior desk editor of technology and engineering at Scientific American. He edits and assigns coverage at the intersection of science, technology and society, with a focus on artificial intelligence, advanced computing and the innovation economy. Previously, Sullivan was a senior editor at Fast Company, where he helped lead the “Most Innovative Companies” franchise. Earlier, he ran Esquire’s long-form desk, overseeing investigative and narrative features for print and digital. He began his editing career at GQ, where his work helped earn a National Magazine Award for Reporting.
Sullivan holds a B.A. in neuroscience and behavior from Wesleyan University and has a background in clinical research at University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Key areas of expertise: AI, emerging tech, computing, transportation, energy, infrastructure, engineering, tech and society and long-form editing.
Andrea Thompson
Senior Desk Editor/Life Science
Andrea Thompson is senior desk editor for life science, overseeing coverage of the environment, Earth sciences and nonhuman biology. 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. Thompson began her career at Live Science before covering climate science and extreme weather as a senior writer at Climate Central. She has appeared on several national radio and TV programs and podcasts and has moderated panels at the United Nations and other events. She has also moderated Scientific American’s Science on the Hill series, presenting scientific topics to congressional staffers.
Key areas of expertise: Climate science, climate change impacts, extreme weather and plastics.
Dan Vergano
Senior Editor, Washington, D.C.
Dan Vergano joined Scientific American in 2023 and is now a senior editor covering policy news in Washington, D.C., where he reports on Congress and the science agencies. He has broad experience in reporting science over a three-decade career, including coverage of the COVID pandemic, climate, the overdose crisis, space disasters and federal science policy, as well as investigations of scientific misconduct. He is a judge for science journalism writing awards at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has taught journalism at New York University. 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 U.S. Air Force–funded research and development center prior to starting his reporting career.
Key areas of expertise: Science policy, climate, the overdose crisis, space, physics, stem cells, misconduct, clinical trials, the history of science, science journalism, Havana syndrome, COVID and archaeology.
Lauren J. Young
Associate Editor/Health & Medicine
Lauren J. Young is an associate editor for health and medicine at Scientific American. Before joining Scientific American in 2023, she was an associate editor at Popular Science and a digital producer and reporter at public radio’s Science Friday. In 2021 her Science Friday multimedia feature on valley fever, an overlooked, deadly fungal disease, won awards from the Asian American Journalists Association and the Society of Environmental Journalists. She has appeared as a guest on radio shows, podcasts, stage events, and journalism classes and workshops. And she has spoken on panels for the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the American Library Association, NOVA Science Studio and the New York Botanical Garden. She’s also enjoyed being a mentor to early- and mid-career science journalists through the Open Notebook and the AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Scholastic MATH, the School Library Journal, IEEE Spectrum, Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine. Young earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a master’s from New York University’s Science, Health & Environmental Reporting program.
Key areas of expertise: GLP-1 weight-loss medications, diabetes, nutrition, gut health, cancer, aging, immunology, vaccines, infectious diseases and health inequities.
Kate Wong
Senior Editor/Features
Kate Wong is a senior editor covering life sciences at Scientific American. She edits feature-length articles by scientists and writes stories of her own on evolution, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, animal behavior, wildlife ecology and conservation. Wong is co-author, with Donald C. Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She has given invited talks and led discussions at Princeton University, Harvard University, the American Museum of Natural History, the United Nations, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and expedition cruises to Antarctica, among other venues. She holds a B.S. in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. In her free time, she observes and photographs birds.
Key areas of expertise: Human origins, evolution, paleontology and animals.