ABSW Awards 2020: winners announced

The 2020 ABSW Awards Ceremony took place online on Wednesday 14 October within the confines of the UK Conference of Science Journalism.

The winners from shortlisted submissions across 16 categories of science journalism were announced to an online audience of over 300 guests. Many congratulations to all this winners and shortlisted entries, set out below, along with the highlights reel from the Awards Ceremony,

Editor of the Year

Daniel Bennett, BBC Science Focus
Leo Hickman, Carbon Brief

Winner: Leo Hickman, Carbon Brief

British Science Journalist of the Year - sponsored by ABPI

Elizabeth Gibney, Nature
Amit Katwala, WIRED
Oliver Morton, The Economist

Winner: Oliver Morton, The Economist

Engineering or Technology Story of the Year - sponsored by BIVDA

Liam Drew, Agency and the Algorithm, Nature
Olive Heffernan, The hidden fight to stop illegal fishing from destroying our oceans. WIRED
Oliver Morton, Synthetic biology: A whole new world, The Economist

Winner: Liam Drew, Agency and the Algorith, Nature

Feature of the Year - general audience

Victoria Gill, Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment, BBC News
Alok Jha, Gravitational astronomy proves its maturity, The Economist
Michael Le Page, Infectious Optimism, New Scientist

Winner: Michael Le Page, Infectious Optimism, New Scientist

Feature of the Year - specialist audience

Giorgia Guglielmi, Facing up to injustice in genome science, Nature
Aisling Irwin, The Everything Mapper, Nature
Amit Katwala, Global insect populations are collapsing, and we don't know why, WIRED
Gayathri Vaidyanathan, India’s tigers seem to be a massive success story — many scientists aren’t sure, Nature

Winner: Gayathri Vaidyanathan, India’s tigers seem to be a massive success story — many scientists aren’t sure, Nature

Innovation of the Year

Shamini Bundell, Davide Castelvecchi and Noah Baker, The history of the universe in the blink of an eye, Nature
Simon Evans and Rosamund Pearce, How the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade, Carbon Brief
Philip Robinson, Ben Valsler, Patrick Walter, Neil Withers, The data behind the Nobel prizes, Chemistry World

Winners: Simon Evans and Rosamund Pearce, How the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade, Carbon Brief

Newcomer of the Year

Giorgia Guglielmi, freelance
Nicholas Howe, Nature
Annabelle Timsit, Quartz
Victoria Williams, freelance

Winner: Annabelle Timsit, Quartz

News Analysis or Explanatory Reporting of the Year

Nicola Davis, Euthanasia and assisted dying rates are soaring. But where are they legal?, The Guardian
Emma Howard and Georgie Johnson, Life support: How bugs put food on the table, Unearthed, Greenpeace
Oliver Morton and Matt McLean, What goes up, The Economist

Winners: Emma Howard and Georgie Johnson, Life support: How bugs put food on the table, Unearthed, Greenpeace

News Item of the Year

Damian Carrington, Plummeting number of insects threatens 'catastrophe for planet', The Guardian
Debora MacKenzie, We may finally know what causes Alzheimer's - and how to stop it, New Scientist
Kelly Oakes, Amazon Prime Video is full of dodgy documentaries pushing dangerous cancer 'cures', WIRED

Winner: Debora MacKenzie, We may finally know what causes Alzheimer's - and how to stop it, New Scientist

NUJ Stephen White Award for communication and reporting of science in a non science context

Emma Howard and Georgie Johnson, Life Support: How sea creatures control the climate, Unearthed, Greenpeace
Oliver Morton, Remembering a robot, The Economist
Jonathan O'Callaghan, What is space junk and why is it a problem?, Natural History Museum

Winner: Oliver Morton, Remembering a robot, The Economist

Opinion Piece or Editorial of the Year

Eva Amsen, Genetic medicine Is poised to create new inequality. Here’s how to fix it, Undark
Michael Le Page, The biofuel delusion, New Scientist
Angela Saini, Identity crisis, Tortoise

Winner: Eva Amsen, Genetic medicine Is poised to create new inequality. Here’s how to fix it, Undark

Research Policy or Funding Story of the Year

David Adam, Science funders gamble on grant lotteries, Nature
David Cyranoski, The potent effects of Japan’s stem-cell policies, Nature
Ehsan Masood, How China is redrawing the map of world science, Nature

Winner: Ehsan Masood, How China is redrawing the map of world science, Nature

Royal Society Audio Award

Melanie Brown, Louisa Field, Eleni Hassabis, Marnie Chesterton, Why can't I remember my accident?, CrowdScience BBC World Service
Deborah Cohen, Andrew Luck-Baker, Rami Tzabar, Kevin Fong, 13 minutes to the moon Episode 5: The Fourth Astronaut, BBC World Service
Dimitri Houtart, Jheni Osman, Anne-Marie Bullock, Alasdair Cross, Costing the Earth The e-DNA revolution BBC Radio 4

Winners: Melanie Brown, Louisa Field, Eleni Hassabis, Marnie Chesterton, Why can't I remember my accident?, CrowdScience BBC World Service

Steve Connor Award for Investigative Journalism - sponsored by UK Research and Innovation

Benedikt Heubl, Lithium firms depleting vital water supplies in Chile, Engineering and Technology
Adam Murphy, Phil Sansom and Chris Smith, The fly infest-agation, Naked Scientists
Peter Schwartzstein, One of Africa’s most fertile lands is struggling to feed its own people, Bloomberg Businessweek

Winner: Benedikt Heubl, Lithium firms depleting vital water supplies in Chile, Engineering and Technology

Video Story of the Year

Victoria Gill, Jemma Cox, David Cheeseman, Linda Sills, Alison Francis: producer. Our World: In the shadow of Chernobyl, BBC News
Alok Jha and Oliver Smyth, Why does time go forwards, not backwards?, BBC Ideas
Angela Saini and Adam Pearson, Eugenics: science’s greatest scandal, BBC Four

Winners: Victoria Gill, Jemma Cox, David Cheeseman, Linda Sills, Alison Francis: producer. Our World: In the shadow of Chernobyl, BBC News

The Dr Katharine Giles Award for best popular article written by a scientist or engineer

Anna Henschel, Can really *everyone* be a data scientist?, theGIST
Lauren Nelson, Drug design of the future, A Short Scientist

Winner: Anna Henschel, Can really *everyone* be a data scientist?, theGIST

There were also two special awards:

Science Under The Microscope - sponsored by IBM Research Europe

Selected by the judges from all shortlisted entries and made to the entry that provides the most insight into the process and personalities of science

Winners: Dimitri Houtart, Jheni Osman, Anne-Marie Bullock, Alasdair Cross, Costing the Earth: The e-DNA revolution, BBC Radio 4

Lifetime Achievement Award

For a member of the UK journalism science community who has consistently set an exemplary standard in his or her work throughout their career

Winner: Robin McKie, The Observer

Many congratulations once again to all the winners and shortlisted entries!

Additional details including the judges comments and the full citation for Robin McKie can be found on the 2020 Awards page.