I feel lucky and honored to have won several writing awards. I was a 2005 finalist for a Livingston Award for an article I wrote about a practically ignored study of the number of deaths in Iraq since the American invasion.That year, a package of stories I contributed to, on the opening of the University of California's tenth campus, received a special citation from the Education Writers Association.

In 2003, I received three writing awards. I received the 2002 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for young science writers for three articles: one about book authors' financial conflicts of interest, another about adaptations birds have made to their migratory lifestyles, and a third about the world's largest brain bank, for which I watched (and described) the dissection of a fresh human brain.

I also received the 2003 Media Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. It was for my article "Battling for Hearts and Minds," about the cognitive difficulties many people suffer following heart surgery.

And I took third place in the Society for Environmental Journalists' Awards for Reporting on the Environment, in the category of Small-Market Reporting, Print. That recognition came for three stories: one about how the human-altered environment can make animals' adapted behaviors problematic, another about the burgeoning field of road ecology and how it is affecting transportation planning, and the one about adaptations birds have made to their migratory lifestyles.

I also was part of a team of reporters who won Washington Monthly's Monthly Journalism Award for June, 2003. We won it for our package, "Closing the Gates," about how homeland security measures have affected higher eductation.

Links to a few of my recent articles are below and a more-complete list is on my publications page. To read some of my stories online, you'll need a subscription or password. Contact me if you're interested in using a guest password.

Before my current position, I was a writer and editor for two now-defunct American Chemical Society magazines, Modern Drug Discovery and Today's Chemist at Work.

On a freelance basis, I have written for such publications as The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, New Scientist, Science Now/InScight, The Economist, Chemistry, and Health magazine.

In 1998, I spent six months in London working as a reporter for New Scientist. Before that, I spent a year transforming myself from a chemist to a writer in the science writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I worked part-time during that year at the Santa Cruz Sentinel and at Stanford News Service.

In what spare time I can muster, I really enjoy the arts, especially music. I am an avid choral singer. I also like to knit. Mostly, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, especially my husband, Chris Kankel.

Please feel free to email comments and suggestions.

A few recent articles