The Sessions 2025

5 things we wish we'd known when we began our feature-writing careers 

Panel discussion (60min)

Experienced feature-writers talk about the mistakes they made at the start of their careers and how you can avoid them.

Producer: Aisling Irwin, award winning feature writer and ABSW Board member

Panellists (others tbc): Liam Drew, who writes features on biology and medicine with bylines in Nature, The Guardian, Aeon and Quanta; Clare Wilson, who is science writer at The i Paper and formerly a reporter for New Scientist; and Rachel Brazil who worked in academic publishing and for learned societies until, 12 years ago, she switched to science feature writing. She writes for Chemistry World, Chemistry & Engineering News, the Pharmaceutical Journal and Nature among others. 

Becoming a science YouTuber

Workshop (90min)

During this session, Dr Tom Crawford (@tomrocksmaths) will discuss the ins and outs of how to physically make a video and upload it to YouTube, with a focus on what it's actually like to be a YouTuber. How much do you reveal about your true self? How do you maintain a degree of privacy while still trying to interact genuinely with your audience? How do you balance academic vigor with engaging in click bait and other audience-building strategies for the algorithms? If you’ve ever thought about making YouTube content but don’t know where to start, this is the session for you. 

Producer: Benjamin Platt, freelance journalist and ABSW Board member

Workshop leader: Tom Crawford, is a Mathematician at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He also runs an award-winning website and associated social media profiles on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube @tomrocksmaths. 

Career paths in science journalism 

Opening Plenary (60min)

How do you become a science journalist? What's the best way to build up experience when you're still  starting out? And once you have your first job, what career paths are available and how do you work your way through the ranks? In this session, a panel of science journalists in the first few years of their careers will discuss how they started out and where their careers have taken them, with plenty of time to ask questions about their experiences.

Producer: Deborah Cohen, former editor of the BBC Radio Science Unit and ABSW Secretary

Panellists: tbc

From subject to story 

Workshop (90min)

Editors complain that journalists pitch them subject areas or "topics" rather than "stories". If you are going to pitch successfully you need to know the difference. This workshop will delve into what makes a great story, and will help you hone the skills needed to find story ideas within your topic. 

Producer: Aisling Irwin, award winning feature writer and ABSW Board member

Workshop leaders: Claire Ainsworth has held reporter and editor posts at both New Scientist and Nature, and is now freelance; she is also an experienced science writing trainer. Aisling Irwin is an award-winning feature writer and ABSW board member.

Interview Skills: Get the story you need from the person in front of you

Workshop (90min)

How to interview to get the most out of your interviewee, how to get the answers you need, keep the interviewee engaged and on topic. A highly practical session that will see you interviewing scientists from King's College, and receiving feedback from our expert interviewer.

Producer: Alex O'Brien, freelance writer and author and ABSW Vice-Chair

Workshop Leader: Alok Jha, Science and technology editor, The Economist

Journalism from scientific papers: Finding the most valuable stories 

Workshop (90min)

Research papers are at the heart of the scientific process - science journalists must all read them at some time. But with time pressures always an issue, there is a skill to getting the best stories from academic literature. At this workshop, attendees will learn: How journalists can best navigate the structure of scientific papers; How can we find the strongest angles from papers everyone is covering; Where can we find interesting and important stories no-one else has covered.

Producer: Andy Extance, freelance science writer

Workshop leaders: Andy Extance, Freelance science Writer and ABSW Chair, Emma Stoye, Senior News Editor, Nature, Sarah Wild, Freelance Science Journalist, Dalmeet Singh Chawla, Freelance Science Journalist (online)

Misinformation- how to spot it and how to counter it

Workshop (90min)

Experts outline how to spot misinformation, how to counter it and how to spot red flags in data.

Producer: Andy Ridgway, Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the University of the West of England and ABSW Board member

Workshop leaders (further participants tbc): Jon Roozenbeek, Lecturer in Psychology and Security, King's College, London, Freya Robb, Senior Press Officer, Science Media Centre.

Speed Networking

Speed networking (120min during evening reception)

Book yourself 5 minute slots with science and technology journalists, broadcasters, editors and others working in science communication and public relations to find out more about their jobs and how they got there.  You can - if appropriate to the individual you are speaking to you - even pitch a story you have been working on. Bookings will take place throughout the day of the Summer School at registration.

Producer: Sallie Robins, ABSW Executive Secretary

Those taking part will be added here as they are confirmed: Mun Keat Looi, International Features Editor, BMJ; ABSW Board member and lecturer on journalism at Imperial College London. Clare Wilson, who is science writer at The i Paper and formerly a reporter for New Scientist. Emma Stoye, Senior News Editor, Nature. Rachel Brazil, Freelance Science Writer, Tom Crawford, social media/YouTube. Alok Jha, Science and Technology Editor, The Economist.

The art of pitching 

Workshop (90min) 

Learn the basics and build a strong foundation to write (and evaluate) pitches for a variety of outlets. 

Workshop Leader: Mun Keat Looi, International Features Editor, BMJ; ABSW Board member and lecturer on journalism at Imperial College London. 

Your digital future

Panel discussion (60min)

A discussion on the evolving digital landscape of media and publishing, plus a review of the digital tools that will be key to your job as a journalist. 

Producer: Sallie Robins, ABSW Executive Secretary

Panellists: Mun Keat Looi, International Features Editor, BMJ; ABSW Board member and lecturer on journalism at Imperial College London. Olivia Hains is Media and Project Manager at Aeon Media, the publisher behind Aeon and Psyche magazines, and a freelance journalist writing about health, science, gender and social justice.