The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is excited to announce this year’s Science Journalism Fellowship awardees: Georg Koszulinski, Stefano Valentino and Carl Smith. The support will allow Georg to film a climate change documentary on board the R/V Neil Armstrong, help Stefano report on complex glacier changes in the Svalbard islands, and enable Carl to share the latest in geomicrobiology, carbon capture and Antikythera from northern parts of Scandinavia and Greece.

Georg, who was awarded 860 EUR for his project, shares, “I am delighted and honoured to accept this award. Scientific journalism and documentary work that bridges the gap between scientists and general audiences is of critical importance, and this grant will help achieve those ends. I look forward to this work that will ask audiences to think critically about the nature and purpose of scientific inquiry; the need for a greater understanding of paleoclimate to gain further insight into anthropogenic climate change; and show audiences how scientists, mariners, and film-makers can work together to bring these stories to life!”

Georg is currently an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media, where he teaches graduate and BFA courses in film production. He is a multimodal film-maker whose work spans a wide range of forms and styles. Throughout his career, Georg has produced and directed eleven feature-length fiction and documentary films and dozens of short form experimental, essayistic, and narrative works. These films have been widely distributed and selected to hundreds of juried film festivals, museums, and micro-cinemas in the past two decades.

Stefano is an entrepreneurial journalist who specializes in global ecological crises and exposing connections between the environment, sustainability, lobbying, security and conflicts. “I am honoured to receive the EGU fellowship,” says Stefano, “which will offer me the opportunity to fund and promote my media project to cover field research activities by scientists, so we can better understand the impact of global warming in the Arctic.”

Stefano has been awarded 2500 EUR for his project, which he calls a ‘Quest for Glaciers Melt Secret.’ Currently, he serves as Investigations Manager at the news outlet Voxeurop.eu, and founding member of the European Data Journalism Network which brings together 30 European news outlets that cross-publish investigations on topics of European relevance.

Our third awardee Carl has received 1700 EUR to travel to remote and often remarkable places where geoscientists do their work. He says, “From glaciers to mountain peaks to underground mines, science often happens in extraordinary parts of the world. I’m really excited to use these places as a way to draw general audiences into the work underway on the frontlines of science. Getting to these hard-to-reach locations is often a challenge for science journalists, so this funding will be a big help for the project.”

Carl is an Australian science journalist and currently a fellow at the MIP.labor at the Freie Universitat in Berlin. He has worked extensively with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)’s Science Unit as a science reporter, presenter, and series producer. He won the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism (2021) for ‘Patient Zero’, the Walkley Award (2017) for ‘Bionic Bodies,’ the Best Australian Science Writing (2018, 2019, 2020, & 2022) and was a Finalist for the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism: 2022 for ‘Chimeras in Medicine’ and 2020 for ‘Forgotten Women of Australian Computing.’

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 a number of diverse scientific journals that use an innovative open access format and organises topical meetings plus education and outreach activities. Its annual General Assembly is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting more than 14,000 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. For more information, follow the EGU on Twitter and Facebook.

Images in the header are by Dirk Dienhart, Liping Pang and Ana Miller from imaggeo.egu.eu.