Michael Milstein, who staffs the one-man Wyoming bureau for The Billings Gazette, has been named winner of the 1996 Evert Clark Award, an annual science-journalism prize for reporters aged 30 or younger. He received the $1000 award for an article in The Boston Globe, "The Quest for Miracle Microbes," and three stories in the San Diego-Union Tribune, "Evolution on the Fly," "Europa," and "The Microbe Hunt."
Honorable mentions went to Alexandra Witze of the Dallas Morning News for stories on buckytubes, the fascination with life on Mars, the design of concert halls, and the promise of light-emitting polymers; and to John Travis for stories in Science News on cellular structure and bacteria that alter the sexual reproduction of insects.
The awards were presented by the Evert Clark Fund and the National Association of Science Writers, in conjunction with the National Press Foundation February 15 in Seattle at the annual NASW dinner.
Judges were David Stenger of the Naval Research Laboratory, Colin Macilwain of Nature magazine; Daniel Greenberg, editor and publisher of Science and Government Report; Douglas Harbrecht, vice-president of the National Press Club; and Susan Milius, UPI science writer.
The award, intended to encourage young science writers, is given each year in memory of Ev Clark, a veteran journalist who covered science and science policy for Business Week, Newsweek, and The New York Times, and provided friendship and advice to beginning science writers.