New York Times science editor Bill Wasik sent out the following:
I’m thrilled to announce that Eric Boodman, one of the most lauded rising talents in the world of science writing, will be joining The Times in the new role of national science correspondent.
Eric comes to us from STAT, where he has worked since its founding in 2015, helping to make it a destination for narrative features. His chronicle of a Haitian-American hospital worker’s death was a finalist for the Livingston Award and won the New America Award for public service coverage of immigrant communities; he received a second Livingston nod for his investigation about doctors pressuring women with sickle cell disease into sterilizations as recently as 2022. He has also broken news on the federal government’s flawed distribution of Covid-19 drugs and driven STAT’s coverage on the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Megan Thielking, now senior editor for news at The Times’s Well desk, edited Eric for a year during her time at STAT. She says: “Eric has a way of drawing out the details that make a story sing, and using them to surprise and delight readers — even those who wouldn’t otherwise find themselves captivated by a science story. There were the envelopes used to mail bugs to an insect detective, which ‘arrive empty, with chew marks in the corner.’ Or the conservative abortion doctor in Appalachia who was raised with an old-fashioned politesse and an ear for grammar, and ‘still cringes when he hears a poorly conjugated verb.’ When you meet Eric, you get a little window into how he does it. He is endlessly inquisitive and inviting, and always in search of some surprise and delight himself.”
At The Times, Eric will step into a new role on the Science desk, one that looks broadly for stories all around the world of American research. As national science correspondent, he will track important news, explain key developments and also look for narratives that capture the excitement and human stakes of scientific discovery at our tumultuous moment in American history: major investments and funding cuts, rising and falling academic stars, disputes over authorship and academic integrity, and more. He’ll bring these forces to life through the rigorous reporting and deeply human storytelling that he’s become known for.
Eric started his science-writing career at age 14, reviewing bird books for The Montreal Gazette, and has since written about the philosophy of luck and the malleability of memories for New York magazine, traditional Québécois foot percussion for the Times Magazine, and a meal of prehistoric mystery meat for The Atlantic. He has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award in feature writing, and has won five Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Science in Society Awards, the Poynter Institute’s Deborah Howell Award for writing excellence, and the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for young science journalists. Last year, he was part of a team of reporters who received a George Polk award for their coverage of the Trump administration’s toll on American science.
Eric’s first day at The Times will be Monday, Sept. 28. Please join me in welcoming him to The Times, and to the Science desk.
—Bill
