ABSW Lifetime Achievement Award

ABSW Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognises contributions in leadership and service to science journalism or science writing, including but not limited to:

• Championing independence and excellence in the reporting of science, medicine, engineering or technology
• Communicating science, medicine, engineering or technology and holding them to account
• Journalistic achievement and impact
• Professional development of colleagues, including mentoring
• Exemplary professional behaviour

Nominations for the Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 are now open. 

ABSW members can submit their nominations by emailing [email protected] by end of February 2024.  Please ensure you include your full details, including job title, alongside full details of your nominee including a statement that reflects on the bullet points above and outlines your nominees suitability to receive the award. 

2022 Lifetime Achievement Award

The 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award went to Judith Hann, best known for her work on the TV programme, Tomorrow’s World. At the awards ceremony Judith gave an inspiring speech on the hurdles she had faced as a woman in the male dominated world of science journalism in the 60s/70s and 80s.  It was clear that this trailblazer for women had inspired many in the audience to go into science journalism.  Thankfully times have clearly changed as the list of finalists and winners in 2022 was dominated by women journalists and broadcasters. You can watch the whole of the ceremony here, including the amazing Lifetime Achievement award presentation to Judith Hann from 1h23 mins.

In his nominating statement Andy Extance, Chair of the ABSW said:

I'd like to nominate Judith Hann for our lifetime achievement award. The name may or may not ring a bell - she was a Tomorrow's World presenter for 20 years. In 1967, she won the ABSW's regional award while working as science correspondent and feature writer for the Northern Echo in Darlington. She won another ABSW award in 1974, the year she started work on Tomorrow's World. From her agent's website: "Judith has also written and presented programmes and series of her own for TV and radio on healthy food, the science of ageing, renewable energy. Judith has always carried on her writing career alongside broadcasting work and has written seven books to-date including her new book HERBS, plus several books on science, medicine, health and food, and How Science Works, which has been translated into twenty languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She also worked for the Royal Society for 12 years, training hundreds of the world’s leading scientists how to explain their work in an exciting way to the public. She also runs a media training and communications skills company with her husband, teaching individuals how to make the most of themselves, and companies how to make the most of the media. Durham University awarded Judith Hann an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law for what the citation described as her “outstanding contribution to science journalism”." Given that Judith has an exemplary record as a science journalist, mainstream science communicator and media trainer, she is an excellent candidate for the award. It's odd to me that she's been overlooked before.
 

The 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award went to former ABSW Chair, Wendy Barnaby

Citation, read by ABSW President Pallab Ghosh:

"I’m very pleased to present the lifetime achievement award, which goes to a member of the UK journalism science community who has consistently set an exemplary standard in his or her work throughout their career. 

This year the award goes to a journalist who has been a great example for women looking to make a career in science journalism. Most recently she has been teaching on Imperial College’s Science Communication Masters course. But she’s done excellent work for many outlets and institutions including Nature, New Scientist, the Times Higher, the Royal Society, European Commission and Grantham Institute for Climate Change. She has contributed to decades of science programming on BBC and ABC radio. She has made many audio and video podcasts for the British Journal of Surgery, the Royal Society and the British Psychological Society. From 2001 to 2014 she was the Editor of People & Science, the magazine of the British Science Association.  

Perhaps most importantly she’s never shied away from controversial reporting. You can see that in her book, The Plague Makers, an introduction to biological warfare, and her reporting on The Water Wars in Nature, stressing that conflicts really were originating from access to water. 

She has media-trained hundreds of scientists in organisations including the Biotechnological and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the National Trust and the British Psychological Society.  She has served as an adviser to the BBSRC as a member of its Bioscience in Society panel, and on the BBSRC’s Institute Assessment panel.

She’s also done great service to the ABSW itself, long serving on our committee, becoming our second female chair from 1993-1995, and judging our awards. She helped set up the Wellcome Trust bursaries, which funded science journalism training and placements."

Former winners of the ABSW Lifetime Achievement Award