The National Association of Science Writers and its Education Committee have published their latest Student Newsroom and announced five Summer Writing Awards winners, marking the conclusion of the 2026 NASW David Perlman Virtual Mentoring Program.
Named in honor of former NASW president and renowned science journalist David Perlman, the virtual mentoring program was created in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to provide science writing learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students amid disruptions to available summer internships.
The program returned this summer with 52 students matched with NASW member volunteers from a variety of science writing backgrounds for mentorship and support. Mentors and students met for a kickoff event on June 3, and 30 students also opted to write a reported piece with guidance and edits from their mentors.
Completed student pieces are now published in the program’s 2026 Student Newsroom, offering students a published clip for their budding portfolio — for some, their first-ever reported-and-edited story. Most students have also pitched their stories to external news outlets, many for the first time.
All student-produced stories were considered for the NASW Summer Writing Award, which comes with a free conference registration to ScienceWriters2026. Read by a panel of editors and writers volunteering their time as NASW members, the student entries were judged blind in two rounds for clarity, style, story structure, diversity of sources, and effective use of quotes and data.
The 2026 NASW Summer Writing Award winners are:
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Beverly Casillas (Mentor: Nancy Averett, freelance) for the story “Scuba dives clean up trash, but displace tiny hitchhikers.” One of our judges wrote: “I'm very impressed with the writer's voice throughout this piece. The opening grabbed my attention, and the rest of the story kept up that same intriguing appeal.”
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Breyton Hill (Mentor: Eric Bender, freelance) for the story “Hopping smartly toward survival.” One of our judges wrote: “The student did a great job concisely explaining the crux of the issue, as well as the contributing factors. They then clearly wrapped it up with potential barriers and concerns about ethics, while still driving home the initial point of the story. Overall a well written article.”
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Claire Brandes (Mentor: Madeline Bodin, freelance) for the story “Viral for the Wrong Reasons: Social media drives the pet primate trade.” One of our judges wrote: “Professional storytelling that carries the reader through, with exceptional sourcing that illuminates not just the scientific but the ethical ramifications of the findings.”
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Emily Davies (Mentor: Amber Dance, freelance) for the story “Chimpanzee See, Chimpanzee Do: Peering Behavior Uncovers Extent of Culture in Our Closest Relatives” One of our judges wrote: “A great read! The story is structured really well, and I appreciate the good use of quotes and source material. The lede drew me in right away with the visualization of the chimp characters.”
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Kaan Ozcan (Mentor: Amy Nordrum, MIT Technology Review) for the story “Trump capped loans for medical students. Some say their dreams are now out of reach.” One of our judges wrote: “I love how the writer centers the stories of everyday people and gets readers to really care about the issues at hand. The writer did a great job balancing different viewpoints and maintaining an objective tone. This reads like the work of someone who is already a professional journalist…Impressive work for such a short timeframe!”
The 2026 NASW Perlman Virtual Mentoring Program was produced by the NASW Education Committee, with committee co-chair Courtney Gorman (Texas A&M University), committee co-chair Shel Evergreen (freelance). Committee members Chia-Yi Hou (Rockefeller University) served as external publications liaison, Courtney Gorman served as Summer Writing Awards judging coordinator, Corie Lok (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) assisted with newsroom copyediting, and Haley Wasserman (Johns Hopkins Medicine) and Stella Mayerhoff (Report for America) who both assisted with mentor-mentee matching, as well as Michael Newman (recently retired from Johns Hopkins Medicine), mentor and guest speaker at the program launch event.
NASW and the Perlman Program organizers share effusive thanks to the more than 50 NASW members who took the time to serve as mentors and editors, sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge to support up-and-coming science writers. Please join NASW in thanking the science writing colleagues below for their support of the 2026 program:
NASW Members Volunteering as Mentors and Editors
- Alex Viveros, Jackson Hole News & Guide
- Alexandra Witze, freelance, Nature
- Alison Gold, Boston University
- Amber Dance, freelance
- Amber Rose, Argonne National Laboratory
- Amy Nordrum, MIT Technology Review
- Anne McGovern, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Ariana Remmel, BirdNote
- Cay Leytham-Powell, University of Colorado Boulder
- Chris Berdik, freelance
- Chris Hubbuch, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Chris Curran, Northern Kentucky University
- Cristina Deptula, freelance
- Dan Garisto, freelance
- Daniel Serrano, University of Maryland College Park
- David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society
- Denise Gellene, University of California, Los Angeles
- Doug Smith, Caltech
- Elliot Richman, freelance
- Emily Greenhalgh, The Jackson Laboratory
- Eric Bender, freelance
- Erika Hayden, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Erin Digtale, Stanford School of Medicine
- Erin Woodward, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Hannah Robbins, Johns Hopkins University
- Jennifer Welsh, WelshLee Creative, LLC
- Jenny Woodman, Schmidt Ocean Institute
- Jeremy Rehm, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- John Cannon, Mongabay
- Josh Chamot, Someday, in Science
- Julia Ostmann, freelance
- Katherine Kornei, freelance
- Kathryn Hulick, freelance
- Kerry Klein, KVPR Valley Public Radio
- Lindsey Leake, freelance
- Lisa Munoz, SciComm Services
- Madeline Bodin, freelance
- Mary Hoff, Project Drawdown, freelance
- Massie Ballon, Joint Genome Institute
- Matthew Hutson, freelance
- Meredith Fore, Chicago Quantum Exchange, University of Chicago
- Michael Newman, Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Michele Baum, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
- Nancy Averett, freelance
- Nora Bradford, University of Pennsylvania, freelance
- Robin Meadows, freelance
- Sarah Bay, freelance
- Sarah Nightingale, University of California, Riverside
- Sarah Sharman, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
- Shannon Shea, U.S. Department of Energy
- Shel Evergreen, freelance
- Stephanie McPherson, freelance
- Taylor Stolberg, SUNY Upstate Medical University
- Tyler Santora, freelance
- Valerie Hruska, freelance
NASW Members Volunteering as Summer Writing Awards Judges
- Alexandra Witze, freelance, Nature
- Amber Rose, Argonne National Laboratory
- Anne McGovern, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Chris Hubbuch, University of Wisconsin Madison
- Cameron Walker, freelance
- Courtney Gorman, Texas A&M University
- Denise Gellene, University of California, Los Angeles
- Hannah Richter, freelance
- Hannah Robbins, Johns Hopkins University
- Jenny Woodman, Schmidt Ocean Institute
- Juhi Kundi, LUNGevity Foundation
- Julia Ostmann, freelance
- Kathryn Hulick, freelance
- Kristen Delphos, UL Research Institutes
- Lisa Munoz, SciComm Services
- Meredith Fore, Chicago Quantum Exchange, University of Chicago
- Nancy Averett, freelance
- Ranjini Raghunath, Indian Institute of Science
- Shel Evergreen, freelance
- Valerie Hruska, freelance
The NASW Perlman Virtual Mentoring program is named for longtime science writer and past NASW President David Perlman. Dave, who died in 2020 at the age of 101 only three years after his retirement from the San Francisco Chronicle, was a mentor to countless members of the science writing community and always made time for kind and supportive words, especially for early career writers.
Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~ 2,300 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org and follow NASW on LinkedIn.
