Carl Zimmer

Zimmer received his B.A. in English from Yale University in 1987.[4] In 1989, he started his career at Discover magazine, first as a copy editor and fact checker, eventually serving as a senior editor from 1994 to 1998.[1][5][6] Zimmer left Discover after ten years to focus on books and other projects. In 2004, he started a blog called "The Loom", in which he wrote about topics related to his books, but later expanded it into what he terms "a place where I could write about things I might not be turning into an article for a magazine, but were really interesting”.[5] The Loom has been hosted by Discover and National Geographic for many years, and was invited to be part of Scienceblogs in the past. It has been transferred to Zimmer's personal website in 2018.[7] As of 2013, Zimmer writes a weekly column called Matter in The New York Times.[8] Zimmer and the STAT project team have put out “Game of Genomes,” a 13-part series that enlisted two dozen scientists, with the goal of exploring Zimmer's own genome.[9]

He has given lectures at some of USA's leading universities, medical schools, and museums.[6] In 2009, Zimmer was the keynote speaker at Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS). He has also presented at NECSS 2011 and CSICon 2018.[10] Twice, Zimmer has been a spotlight speaker at Aspen Ideas Festival, in 2017 at Aspen Ideas, and in 2018 for Aspen Ideas: Health.[11] In 2009 and 2010 he was host of the periodic audio podcast Meet the Scientist[12] of the American Society for Microbiology (replacing Merry Buckley). Zimmer's 2004 article Whose Life Would You Save?[13] has been featured in the 2005 The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.[6][14]

Zimmer is widely recognized as one of the finest science essayists and communicators, and has thus received numerous awards including the 2007 National Academies Communication Award, a prize for science communication[15] from the United States National Academy of Sciences, for his wide-ranging coverage of biology and evolution in newspapers, magazines and his blog. For these same reasons, in 2016 Yale University appointed Zimmer Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, stating that he is "a world-renowned science journalist and teacher, and his ability to make science, particularly biology, accessible to the general public is without peer". Zimmer teaches a science communication course at Yale since 2017 and participates in other Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry courses.[16][17]

Zimmer publicly expresses his concerns about recent science denial, and notes that attacks on science "are in a number of cases well-funded campaigns, and some politicians are backing some of them for their own political ends.", where "climate change, evolution, and vaccines seem to top the list." He further says that each case of science denial is concerning, and says that some, e.g. spreading misinformation about vaccines to worried parents, leads to needless outbreaks of disease that even puts children at risk of death.[18] Similarly, Zimmer considers global warming as one of the biggest societal issues of our time, as our children and their children will inherit not only our genes, but this planet too, and states that "We should think about tinkering with the future of genetic heredity, but I think we should also be doing that with our environmental heredity and our cultural heredity."[19]

According to Zimmer there is a broader threat of these particular attacks on science, potentially eroding people's understanding of how science works in general: "If people come to see science as just someone else's opinion, rather than a powerful way of knowing based on evidence, then all sorts of trouble may arise."[18]

In his keynote talk at The Rockefeller University on 6 September 2017, he noted that democracy, science and journalism are "three valuable institutions that have made life...far better than it would have been without them." He stated however that we should not take it for granted that they are free from corruption, and urged to keep them that way. Specifically, he stated that "We can look back through history and see how in different places and in different times, each of these pillars cracked and sometimes fell. We should not be smug, when we look back at these episodes. We should not be so arrogant, as to believe that we are so much smarter or nobler that we're somehow immune from this disasters."[20] Zimmer is critical of politicians negative influence on science. Specifically, he is critical of Trump's anti-science stance, specifically his denial of human-caused climate change. Similarly, he is critical of Trump's appointment of science-deniers to lead crucial US environmental agencies, such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Energy. Zimmer is also critical of Putin's influence on Russian science, specifically Putin's "friendly take-over" of a Russian science magazine, Putin being the "hands-off chairman" of the Russian Geographic Society.[20]

After publishing She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, in several interviews Zimmer was asked for his opinion about genome editing and CRISPR. While Zimmer thought that some gene-editing procedures, especially for conditions caused by single gene mutations, might provide simple ways to battle serious diseases, he urged for caution about intervention at the embryonic stage. However, he further pointed out the complexity of the issue and the need to address other countries' practices.[20][21][22][23]

• 2017: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for Public Understanding of Science and Technology[24]
• 2015: Osher Fellowship, California Academy of Sciences[25]
• 2010: Poynter Fellowship, Yale. Invited speaker, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry[4]
• 2006: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for Public Understanding of Science and Technology[4]
• 2005: Poynter Fellowship, Yale University. Invited speaker, Psychology.[4]
• 2002: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.[26]

Zimmer speaking at NECSS conference 2011

• 2019: Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers for his book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potentials of Heredity[27].
• 2017: Online News Association's Online Journalism Award, awarded in the explanatory reporting category.[28]
• 2016: Society for the Study of Evolution's The Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded "to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould."[29]
• 2015: National Association of Biology Teachers's (NABT) Distinguished Service Award, awarded to "recognize teachers for their expertise in specific subject areas, for contributions to the profession made by new teachers, and to recognize service to NABT, life science teaching, or leadership in learning communities."[30]
• 2007: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Science Communication Award, awarded to "recognize excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public", in the category Newspaper/magazine/internet[31]
• 2004, 2009, 2012: American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Journalism Award, awarded to honor "professional journalists for distinguished reporting on the sciences, engineering, and mathematics".[32][33]
• 1999: The Pan American Health Organization's Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting[4]
• 1997: American Institute of Biological Sciences's Media Award that "recognizes outstanding reporting on biology to a general audience."[34]
• 1994: Everett Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists, awarded "to encourage young science writers by recognizing outstanding reporting and writing in any field of science."[35]

Book Awards

2018: She Has Her Mother’s Laugh

• New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
• Ten Best Books of the Year, Publisher’s Weekly
• Amazon Best Science Books of the Year
• Amazon Top 100 Books of the Year
• Top Nonfiction Books of 2018, Kirkus Reviews
• Baillie-Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, 2018 Shortlist
• The Times Science Books of 2018

A Planet of Viruses

• Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2016
• Booklist Editor’s Choice, 2011

The Tangled Bank

• Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2010

Microcosm

• Finalist, Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize, 2009
• Longlisted for the 2008 Royal Society Prize for Science Books

Soul Made Flesh

• New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
• Best Books of 2004, Top Ten Editor’s Picks: Science, Amazon.com

Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea

• Best Books of 2002, New Scientist
• Best Books of 2001, Discover

• 
  CSICon 2018
• 
  Carl Zimmer speaking at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in 2011
• 
  The first day of 2014 Fall For The Book festival in Fairfax County, Virginia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carl Zimmer.

• Carl Zimmer official website
• Phenomena: The Loom Zimmer's blog at National Geographic
• List of video conversations and debates with Zimmer and others on Bloggingheads.tv
• Color images of viruses from his book, A Planet of Viruses
• Career advice for those looking to get into science journalism offered by Carl Zimmer
• Appearances on C-SPAN