Deborah Blum is director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. A Pulitzer-prize winning science journalist, she is the author of five books, co-editor of A Field Guide for Science Writers, and the 2014 guest editor of Best American Science and Nature Writing. She has written for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, Time, Scientific American and Discover. She won the Pulitzer prize for beat reporting in 1992 while working as a staff science writer for the Sacramento Bee. Before coming to MIT, Blum was Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and the former North American board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists. She currently serves as vice president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.