The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT (KSJ) will welcome 12 fellows in August. In addition to 10 Academic-Year Fellows, KSJ welcomes the inaugural Fellow for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East, and co-hosts a Sharon Begley Fellow with Boston-based publication STAT.
The Knight Science Journalism Program, established at MIT in 1983, is the world’s leading science journalism fellowship program. Fellows come to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to explore science, technology, and the craft of journalism in depth.
The class of 2025 represents the expansive media environment of today’s journalism. Together, the group has award-winning experience in a wide array of journalistic media, reaching the public through podcasts, documentaries, photographs, books, YouTube, TV, and radio.
“It is a privilege to welcome journalists to our programs who are so deeply aware of the importance of quality science coverage, who are eager to improve their craft, and who will continue to contribute positively to the public understanding of science once they leave here,” says Deborah Blum, KSJ director.
The fellows will spend their time in Cambridge studying at MIT and other leading research universities in the Boston area. They’ll also attend seminars by leading scientists and storytellers, take part in hands-on classes and workshops, and visit world-renowned research laboratories. Each journalist will also pursue an independent research project, focused on a topic of their choice, that advances science journalism in the public interest.
“Many of the biggest headlines of our era derive from science and technology — and the way we apply it to the world around us,” says Blum. “Our fellowship program recognizes the dedication and understanding required for stories that do justice to these issues. We bring fellows to MIT to provide them with an opportunity to enrich and deepen that understanding.”
Fabiana Cambricoli is an award-winning Brazilian journalist based in São Paulo, working as a senior health correspondent for Estadão newspaper, with a focus on in-depth and investigative stories. Before that, she contributed to major media outlets like Grupo Folha and was a fellow at ProPublica. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in public health from the University of São Paulo, receiving over 10 awards and grants for her work. Cambricoli’s reporting uncovered government negligence during epidemics, highlighted health disparities, and investigated funding behind scientific disinformation. She also co-founded Fiquem Sabendo, a nonprofit promoting transparency and supporting journalists in accessing public information.
Emily Foxhall is the climate reporter at The Texas Tribune, where she focuses on the clean energy transition and threats from climate change. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after two years at The Los Angeles Times and its community papers and seven years at The Houston Chronicle, where she covered the suburbs, Texas features, and the environment. She has won multiple Texas Managing Editors awards, including for community service journalism, and was part of the team named a 2018 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Harvey. She is a Yale University graduate.
Ahmad Gamal Saad-Eddin is a science journalist based in Egypt. He graduated from the faculty of medicine at Zagazig University in Egypt, and worked as a psychiatrist before leaving medicine and beginning a career in science journalism, first as a head of the science section in Manshoor.com, then as an editor at Nature Arabic Edition. He is currently working as a script writer and the fact-checker of “El-Daheeh,” the leading science YouTube show in the Arab region. His writings have also appeared in several outlets including Scientific American Arabic Edition and Almanassa News. His main writing interest is the interaction between science, its history, and the human experience.
Bryce Hoye is a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He covers a range of topics, from courts and crime to climate, conservation, and more. His stories appear on TV, radio, and online, and he has guest-hosted CBC Manitoba’s “Weekend Morning Show” and “Radio Noon.” He has produced national documentaries for CBC Radio, including for the weekly science program “Quirks & Quarks.” He has won several Radio Television Digital News Association national and regional awards. He previously worked in wildlife biology monitoring birds for several field seasons with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Jori Lewis writes narrative nonfiction that explores how people interact with their environments. Her reports and essays have been published in The Atlantic Magazine, Orion Magazine, and Emergence Magazine, among others, and she is a senior editor of Adi Magazine, a literary magazine of global politics. In 2022, she published her first book, “Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History,” which was supported by the prestigious Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress. It also won a James Beard Media Award and the Harriet Tubman Prize.
Yarden Michaeli is a journalist serving as the science and climate editor of Haaretz, Israel’s sole paper of record. During his 10 years as a writer, reporter, and editor at Haaretz, he became best known for editing the newspaper’s science vertical during the Covid-19 pandemic and founding its climate desk. Among other things, Yarden served as Haaretz’s first reporter on the ground during the war in Ukraine, covered the war in Gaza, and was dispatched to report on the forefront of the climate crisis during storm Daniel in Greece. Yarden was born in Israel and he is based in Tel Aviv. He has a bachelor’s degree in American studies and economy from the Humboldt University in Berlin and he is a member of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi is a two-time winner of the CNN Africa photojournalist award. He is currently with the Associated Press in Zimbabwe. Previously, he was the chief photographer at the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe. With an eye for detail and a passion for multi-format storytelling, he has managed to capture the essence of humanity in his photographs across Africa, Europe, and Asia. He instilled his dedication to his craft and hard work in other photojournalists in his past teaching role with the Norwegian Friedskorp, World Press Foundation in the Netherlands, the Pathshala Institute in South-East Asia, and in his pioneering gender and images work with SAMSO across the southern and East African region.
Aaron Scott is an award-winning multimedia journalist and the creator of the podcast Timber Wars, which was the first audio work to win the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program’s Victor K. McElheny Award, along with the National Headliner Award for Best Narrative Podcast and others. Most recently, he was a host of NPR’s science podcast “Short Wave.” Before that, he spent several years exploring the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest as a reporter/producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s television show “Oregon Field Guide.” His stories have appeared on NPR, Radiolab, This American Life, Outside Podcast, Reveal, and elsewhere.
Evan Urquhart is a freelance journalist whose work has focused on science and medical questions relating to the transgender community. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, his stories have appeared on Slate, Politico, the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and many other outlets nationwide. In 2022, Evan founded Assigned Media, a news site devoted to fact-checking misinformation relating to trans issues. He has appeared as an expert on propaganda and misinformation relating to trans issues on radio shows and podcasts including NPR’s “St. Louis on the Air,” Slate’s “Outward,” The American Prospect’s “Left Anchor,” “What the Trans?,” and “It Could Happen Here.”
Jane Zhang is a technology reporter and the China representative of Bloomberg’s global AI squad based in Hong Kong. Over the years she has covered the Chinese internet and Beijing’s tensions with the United States over tech supremacy before jumping feet-first into reporting China’s historical crackdown on its largest corporations, including Alibaba. She has won awards for extensive on-the-ground reporting and exclusive interviews with industry heavyweights like Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. Her current focus is on covering the incipient AI technology and the regulations around it. Zhang holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong.
Sharon Muzaki joins KSJ as the 2024 recipient of the Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East. She has been with UGStandard Media since 2019, reporting on the environment and climate change in Uganda. Muzaki graduated from Makerere University in 2019 with a degree in journalism and communication. While working for UGStandard Media, she has attended numerous trainings at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications, honing skills in storytelling, data journalism, and mobile storytelling. Muzaki will be the first recipient of the Africa and Middle East Fellowship. The fall semester fellowship, created in honor of the pioneering Egyptian science journalist Mohammed Yahia, is funded by Springer Nature. It is designed to enrich the training of a journalist working in Africa or the Middle East so they can contribute to a culture of high-quality science and health journalism in those regions.
Anil Oza is co-hosted by KSJ and Boston-based publication STAT as the 2024-25 Sharon Begley Science Reporting Fellow. Oza earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Cornell University, where he reported for the campus newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun. Oza has interned at Nature, Science News, and NPR’s “Short Wave.” Oza also interned at STAT during summer 2023, helping produce the health-equity-focused podcast, “Color Code.” Oza will be the fifth recipient of the Sharon Begley Fellowship. This fellowship pays tribute to Sharon Begley’s outstanding career while paving the way for the next generation of science journalists and fostering better coverage of science that is relevant to all people.
More than 400 leading science journalists from six continents have graduated from the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. KSJ also publishes an award-winning science magazine, Undark, and offers programming to journalists on topics ranging from science editing to fact-checking.
