The European Geosciences Union (EGU) has named journalists Cécile Dumas, Aisling Irwin and Tim Kalvelage as the winners of its 2020 Science Journalism Fellowship. The support will allow Kalvelage to report on cold-water coral ecosystems in the Mozambique Channel, Irwin to travel to Germany to investigate new extraction and processing methods for obtaining rare earth elements, and Dumas to follow scientists to several European locations to search for evidence that humanity has entered a new geological epoch.

“I’m delighted to receive this fellowship from the EGU because it is so often the travel costs that prevent the pursuit of a great story,” says Irwin, who will receive €1000 to support her trip. “I’m keen to explore how scientists are trying to minimise the environmental costs of mining for the minerals that will power the green revolution, and now I can go and see this for myself.”

Dumas, who was awarded €1420, says: “I’m very grateful and delighted that this fellowship will support a work about the definition of the Anthropocene, allowing me to tell how geoscientists elaborate the formal definition of a geological epoch. The Anthropocene has become a very popular concept, but the stratigraphic issue has been overlooked.”

Kalvelage, who will receive €2580, says, “I am excited to receive this fellowship, which will allow me to join a research cruise to the western Indian Ocean to explore cold-water coral reefs and their recent geological history. I am looking forward to telling the story of the ecological importance of deep-sea corals as well as their sensitivity to climate change and anthropogenic marine activities.”

Aisling Irwin, who is based in Oxfordshire, UK, is a freelance science journalist whose work has appeared in Nature, New Scientist, SciDev.Net and Geographical. Prior to becoming a freelancer, she was science correspondent on The Daily Telegraph newspaper and Times Higher. She has written a couple of travel books and has a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science and a degree in chemistry.

Based in Paris, France, Cécile Dumas is a journalist and science writer. She’s the co-author of several popular science films, including “Rosetta, memories of a comet” for ARTE and France 5. She also collaborates with several French magazines, such as Sciences et Avenir, Ça M’intéresse, and National Geographic France. Cécile is part of Look at Sciences, a photo, press agency and production company with a focus on science.

Tim Kalvelage, who is based in Bremen, Germany, is a freelance science journalist whose work has appeared in Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Spektrum der Wissenschaft and Geo. Prior to becoming a freelancer, he did a PhD in marine microbiology and worked as a researcher in aquatic biogeochemistry and as an editor for Spektrum der Wissenschaft. Kalvelage is also a graduate from Reportageschule, a journalism school dedicated to long-form non-fiction writing.

The EGU Science Journalism Fellowship is an annual competition open to professional journalists wishing to report on ongoing research in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The winning proposals receive up to €5000 to cover expenses related to their projects. This support is intended to allow the fellows to follow geoscientists on location and to develop an in-depth understanding of their questions, approaches, findings and motivation.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. It is a non-profit interdisciplinary learned association of scientists founded in 2002 with headquarters in Munich, Germany. The EGU publishes 19 diverse scientific journals that use an innovative open access format and also organises a number of topical meetings as well as education and outreach activities. Its annual General Assembly is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting more than 16,000 scientists from all over the world. The meeting’s sessions cover a wide range of topics, including volcanology, planetary exploration, the Earth’s internal structure and atmosphere, climate, energy, and resources. The next EGU General Assembly will take place in Vienna, Austria, from 3 to 8 May 2020. For more information and press registration, please check https://www.egu.eu/gamedia, or follow the EGU on Twitter and Facebook.

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• More information about the EGU Science Journalism Fellowship, including past winners