The world's largest organization of Earth and space scientists—the American Geophysical Union (AGU)—is seeking a Science-Writing Intern to work for approximately 16 weeks this fall at AGU's headquarters in Washington, D.C. AGU publishes 20 scientific journals and runs several scientific meetings; the largest of them, the annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco, draws more than 20,000 participants.
You will work in AGU's public information program (i.e. our press office that publicizes new scientific findings). Your primary focus will be to read abstracts of papers to be published in AGU journals in order to identify newsworthy findings, and to write succinct, accurate, compelling press releases and blog posts about those papers. The information for those pieces will come both from the papers and from interviews with the researchers and independent commenters.
The internship also involves assisting AGU public information staff with a range of other activities, which can include using and exploring social media, creating videos or other multimedia content, and organizing science communication workshops and other events for scientists. You will also work closely with other press office staff to identify newsworthy scientific results that will be presented at the Fall Meeting and to help organize press conferences about those results to take place at the meeting.
Minimum qualifications: Bachelor's degree in the physical or life sciences, current student or graduate of a science journalism program, experience writing official science press releases issued by a public information office and/or stories about scientific research that were published in news media outlets, and willingness to relocate to Washington D.C. area for the internship at own expense. It’s a plus, but not a requirement, to have experience with video and other multimedia, or with social media, and also to have interest and/or experience in helping scientists improve their communication skills.