Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow Sanjana Curtis
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced today this year’s recipients of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications, given by the National Academies in partnership with Schmidt Sciences. These prestigious awards recognize science journalists, research scientists, and science communicators who have developed creative, original work to communicate issues and advances in science, engineering, and medicine to the general public.
A total of 24 awards, split among eight categories, were announced — nine awards for science communication by research scientists, nine awards for science journalists, and six awards for science communicators. In each category, one $40,000 top prize and two $20,000 awards were given, totaling $640,000.
Sanjana Curtis, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley, is one of the 2024 recipients. Her research focuses on some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe, such as the explosive deaths of stars and mergers involving neutron stars and black holes. Many of the elements that make up our bodies and our world were forged in these cosmic cataclysms, and Sanjana is working to uncover their origin stories. She loves to share these stories, as well as her passion for research and discovery, through her writing, TikTok videos, and public lectures. She firmly believes that science is for everyone.