Begley, STAT senior writer, dies at 64

Sharon Begley is the senior science writer at STAT, died Saturday from cancer. She was 64.

Previously she was the senior health & science correspondent at Reuters from 2012 to 2015, the science editor and science columnist at Newsweek from 2007 to 2011, and the science columnist at The Wall Street Journal from 2002 to 2007.

She is the author of the 2017 book “Can’t Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsions;” co-author (with Richard J. Davidson) of the 2012 book “The Emotional Life of Your Brain;” author of the 2007 book “Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain;” and co-author (with Jeffrey Schwartz) of the 2002 book “The Mind and the Brain.”

Sharon is the recipient of numerous awards for her writing, including an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Asheville for communicating science to the public, the Public Understanding of Science Award from the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Victor Cohn prize (2017), and the Kavli Award for science journalism/online category from the American Association for Advancement of Science (2019).

She spoke before many audiences about science writing, neuroplasticity, and science literacy, including at Yale University (her alma mater), the Society for Neuroscience, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Sciences.