Tamar Haspel is a James Beard award-winning journalist who’s been on the food and science beat for the best part of two decades. She's a Washington Post columnist and a contributor to (among others) National Geographic, Discover, and Edible Cape Cod. When she’s tired of the heavy lifting of journalism, she gets dirty. She and her husband, Kevin Flaherty, raise their own chickens, grow their own tomatoes, hunt their own venison, and generally try to stay connected to the idea that food has to come from somewhere. They also have an oyster farm, Barnstable Oyster, where they grow about 250,000 oysters a year in the beautiful waters off Cape Cod.

Twitter: @tamarhaspel

Laura Helmuth is the health and science editor for the Washington Post and the immediate past president of the National Association of Science Writers. She has been an editor for National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, and Science magazines, and a freelance writer or editor for the New York Times, Nautilus, National Wildlife, Stanford Medicine and other publications. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's standing committee on science communication, and serves on the boards of High Country News, Knowable magazine, Society for Science and the Public, SciLine, and Spectrum and is a council member of the Geological Society of Washington. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley and attended the UC Santa Cruz science writing program.

Pitching guidelines:

The Washington Post covers most areas of health and science, as well as policy and politics related to research, health care, health insurance, and science funding. We primarily cover the United States, but we do run stories from around the world. I can recommend editors from our financial, international, wellness and other departments if a pitch isn't quite a fit for my health and science department.

We are looking for stories that go well beyond a single study, although it's fine if a study is the peg for a story. We do not cover early stages of research; for example, we don't cover medical research when it is in the animal model stage of testing. We favor stories that show the consequences of government policies for people, stories that pull together a recent body of research, and stories that give important science background for subjects that are in the news. We do publish first-person articles that have additional reporting and use the author's personal experience as a way to understand a body of research. But it doesn't have to all be serious — we also like to run quirky, surprising, or funny stories.

Freelancers can sign up to be part of the Washington Post's "talent network" here.

Email: laurahelmuth@comcast.net

Mary Hoff is editor in chief of Ensia. An award-winning science communicator, she has more than two decades' experience helping to improve understanding, appreciation and stewardship of our environment through print and online media. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in mass communication with a science communication emphasis from the University of Minnesota. 

Pitching guidelines:

Ensia welcomes proposals from experienced journalists and communicators for feature stories and articles that provide ideas, information and inspiration people around the world can use to shape sustainable solutions to complex challenges. For more information, please download the Ensia Submission Guidelines (PDF).

VOICES SUBMISSIONS

Individuals with compelling perspectives are welcome to submit opinion pieces for consideration for our Voices section. For more information, please download the Voices Submission Guidelines (PDF).

EDGE SUBMISSIONS

Edge is the multimedia storytelling platform of Ensia. Generally, proposals for Edge stories should follow the guidelines for other story proposals. Please consider, however, that Edge stories must have strong visual content and a reason for telling the story using visuals, and will likely be longer than conventional Ensia feature stories (likely upward of 2,000 words).

In addition to clearly describing the piece you envision writing and how it will be innovative, please include an explanation as to why this story should be featured on Edge, including any visual ideas you may have and/or photos, videos, data graphics, infographics, maps, etc., you propose to accompany the piece, and why the story will be best told using them. Please also include payment expectations for any visual assets you propose to provide.

MULTIMEDIA SUBMISSIONS

Experienced photographers, videographers and designers are welcome to submit proposals for photo galleries, multimedia content and infographics. For more information, please download the Multimedia Submission Guidelines (PDF).

BOOK EXCERPTS

Authors and publicists are welcome to submit proposals for book excerpts to be published in Ensia magazine. For more information, please download the Book Excerpts Guidelines (PDF).

Twitter: @mkhoff
Email: mary@ensia.com

Vasant Honavar, professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology, professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics, and professor of Neuroscience at Penn State is interested in researching artificial intelligence (especially machine learning, causal inference, knowledge representation), computer science, data sciences, cognitive and brain sciences, and applied informatics (especially bioinformatics, health informatics). His research is driven by fundamental scientific questions or important practical problems in areas of societal or national priority (e.g., health). Honavar's research has resulted in foundational contributions in these areas.

Rob Jackson and his lab study the many ways people affect the earth. They're currently examining the effects of climate change and droughts on forest mortality and grassland ecosystems. They are also working to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Global Carbon Project, which Jackson chairs. Examples of new research include establishing a global network of methane tower measurements at more than 60 sites worldwide and measuring and reducing methane emissions from oil and gas wells, city streets, and homes and buildings. As an author and photographer, Jackson has published a trade book about the environment (The Earth Remains Forever, University of Texas Press), two books of children’s poems, Animal Mischief and Weekend Mischief (Boyds Mills Press; Highlights magazine), and recent poems in literary journals such as Southwest Review, Cortland Review, Cold Mountain Review, Atlanta Review, and LitHub. His photographs have appeared in many media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and National Geographic News.

Web: https://jacksonlab.stanford.edu/
https://profiles.stanford.edu/jackson

David Keith has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1991. He took first prize in Canada's national physics prize exam, won MIT's prize for excellence in experimental physics, and was one of Time magazine's Heroes of the Environment. He is the founder of Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company developing technology to capture CO2 from ambient air to make carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels. Best known for his work on the science, technology, and public policy of solar geoengineering, Keith led the development of Harvard's Solar Geoengineering Research Program, a Harvard-wide interfaculty research initiative. His work has ranged from the climatic impacts of large-scale wind power to an early critique of the prospects for hydrogen fuel. Keith's hardware engineering work includes the first interferometer for atoms, a high-accuracy infrared spectrometer for NASA's ER-2, the development of Carbon Engineering's air contactor and overall process design, and the development of a stratospheric propelled balloon experiment for solar geoengineering. Keith teaches science and technology policy, climate science, and solar geoengineering. He has reached students worldwide with an edX energy course. He is author of more than 200 academic publications with a total citation count exceeding 12,000. He has written for the public in op-eds and "A Case for Climate Engineering." He splits his time between Cambridge, Mass., and Canmore, Alberta.

Twitter: @DKeithClimate
Web: https://keith.seas.harvard.edu/

Kevin Krajick is senior editor for science news at Columbia University's Earth Institute, whose researchers carry out fieldwork on every continent and ocean. His stories on science, immigration, criminal justice and other subjects have appeared in National Geographic, Newsweek, the New Yorker, Science, Smithsonian and many other publications. As a journalist and press officer, he has reported from 30-some countries and all 50 U.S. states, often from remote locations including glaciers, tundra, tropical forests and high mountains. His 2001 book "Barren Lands" is the true account of how two 20th-prospectors discovered rich diamond deposits in Canada's far north.