The Victor K. McElheny Award is Now Accepting Submissions The award, now in its fifth year, will honor one outstanding work of local or regional science journalism with a $10,000 prize.

The Knight Science Journalism program at MIT is pleased to announce that the 2023 Victor K. McElheny Award is accepting nominations now through January 31, 2023. The award recognizes outstanding coverage of science, public health, technology, or the environment at the local or regional level. The winning journalist or team of journalists will be presented with a $10,000 prize.

The Victor K. McElheny Award was established in 2018 by the Knight Science Journalism program’s founding directory and storied science journalist Victor McElheny and his wife Ruth McElheny as a way to recognize and reward the critical but under-appreciated work being done by science journalists on a local level. According to McElheny, “the prize can help illustrate a continuing contribution to the maximum level of public understanding of what technology and science are achieving, and what these achievements imply for humanity.”

Recent winners include “Black Snow” by Lulu Ramadan, Ash Ngu, Maya Miller, Nadia Sussman, and Hannah Morse of the Palm Beach Post and ProPublica, and “Timber Wars” by Ed Jahn, Aaron Scott, David Steves, Peter Frick-Wright, Robbie Carver, and Laura Gibson of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The award defines “local and regional” widely. Science stories from newspapers, small magazines and digital sites, broadcasters, podcasters, and even bloggers are eligible — as long as the platform’s primary mission is to serve a local or regional audience. Stories produced by a local or regional outlet in collaboration with a national outlet are also eligible, provided the local or regional media outlet can demonstrate a significant contribution to the work, and the story had a local or regional focus. Submissions must have been published during the calendar year 2022.

The winning journalist or team of journalists will be invited to attend an award ceremony in Cambridge MA, held in conjunction with the Knight Science Journalism’s 40th anniversary celebration, on April 22, 2023. For more information please visit the Victor K. McElheny Award page.