Honorable mention awarded to Sanket Jain
The winner of the 2026 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, the annual prize for young science journalists awarded by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), is freelance science journalist Elise Cutts.
Cutts received the award for two stories in Quanta (“Cells use ‘bioelectricity’ to coordinate and make group decisions” and “Two twisty shapes resolve a centuries-old topology puzzle”), a story in Pioneer Works Broadcast (“Myth of the Genetic Blueprint”), and a piece in Science News (“How hot can Earth get? Our planet’s climate history holds clues”).
“Cutts jumps into the most complicated topics — mathematical topology, bioelectricity, the real functions of the genome — with eagerness and she writes about them with verve,” said judge Josh Fischman, a freelance science writer, citing how Cutts wrote about new discoveries on what electricity does in the body with the sentence, “It’s no coincidence that Frankenstein’s monster sprang to life with a spark.” “Such connections glue readers to stories and help them stay glued through complex explanations.”
Independent science journalist Charles Q. Choi, also on the judging panel, noted Cutts’ great skill and talent in explaining complex scientific topics. “Her prose comes off as effortless as she invites readers to dive into disparate realms of science and math,” Choi said. “Often, I kept reading her work wanting to see what new intriguing analogy she might come up with next. In short, I found her work delightful.”
Cutts is a freelance science journalist based in Austria. Her news and feature writing appears in Quanta, Scientific American, Science News, New Scientist, and other magazines. She also writes a newsletter about the systems and incentives of science.
Along with the winners of other 2026 awards conferred by CASW and the National Association of Science Writers, Cutts will be honored during a Sept. 27 award ceremony at the organizations’ jointly hosted meeting, ScienceWriters2026, to be held in Corvallis, OR.
Sanket Jain, an independent science journalist, also won strong praise from the judges for the following stories, which earned him an honorable mention for the 2026 award:
- “Pollution may fuel depression, anxiety and other mental health problems, emerging research suggests,” LiveScience, May 13, 2026
- “How air pollution is rewiring gut chemistry and fuelling chronic disease,” Chemistry World, Feb. 5, 2026
- “How Air Pollution is Aging People Faster,” The Scientist, Oct. 15, 2026
- “A girl’s grades drop every summer. There’s an alarming explanation,” Yale Climate Connections, July 31, 2025
“Jain’s articles on how air pollution and extreme heat are linked to less well-explored health effects shine a light on an issue of worldwide importance, especially in parts of the Global South where Jain focuses much of his reporting,” said judge William Kearney. “Jain humanizes his stories of how air pollution affects mental health, chronic disease, and aging, and how heat waves affect children’s learning, while citing the latest studies and interviewing the scientists behind the research. His reporting and writing should be an inspiration to all early-career science journalists to tackle big topics and to look for stories where others do not.”
Jain is an independent journalist based in India who has spent nine years reporting on science, climate change, health and the environment. His past honors include an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication.
Judges for the 2026 Clark/Payne Award were:
- Shraddha Chakradhar, independent science journalist and editor
- Charles Q. Choi, independent science journalist
- Josh Fischman, freelance science writer
- William Kearney, executive director, Office of News and Public Information, National Academy of Sciences, and a CASW board member
- Ingrid (Yeye) Lobet, deputy editor, Environment, Health and Science, Los Angeles Times
The highly competitive prize was created in 1989 to encourage young science writers by recognizing outstanding reporting in all fields of science. It is given each year in honor of journalist Ev Clark, who offered friendship and advice to a generation of young reporters. The judging was organized by Robin Lloyd, a contributing editor at Scientific American and immediate past president of CASW. For the first three decades, the judging was organized by John Carey, former long-time senior correspondent for Business Week and colleague of Seth Payne, who raised money for the award in memory of Ev Clark.
Entrants must be age 30 or younger. The deadline for submissions is the end of June each year. For more information, please see the Clark/Payne page at casw.org.
