User:KateCWalker/workspace/Michelle Nijhuis

Michelle Nijhuis is a science writer and journalist. Through writing Nijhuis explores many questions about a variety of scientific fields, as well as the scientists who work in them.

Nijhuis has received several awards for her work, including the 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science's Kavli Science Journalism Award, in the magazine category, for her piece titled Crisis in the Caves on white-nose syndrome in bats. The piece was published by Smithsonian and was also the recipient of the 2012 Award for Reporting on a Significant Topic, from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

In 2011 Nijhuis was a fellow of the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

Nijhuis's essay “Taking Wilderness in Hand” appeared in the anthology Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. Her writing also appeared in Best American Science Writing 2003.

Nijhuis received the 2006 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism; a 2006 AAAS Science Journalism Award in the small newspaper category; the Media Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences; and three additional awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Nijhuis has been a finalist for the National Academies Communication Award.

Nijhuis began interning at High Country News, in Paonia, Colorado, in January of 1998. Today Nijhuis is the magazine’s Contributing Editor. She also holds the title of Contributing Writer for Smithsonian magazine. In her successful freelance career, she has published in the New York Times, Nature, Scientific American, National Geographic, Audubon, and Orion, among many other outlets.

Nijhuis recently co-edited a book with Thomas Hayden called The Science Writers’ Handbook, which will be released in spring 2013.

Nijhuis blogs regularly at The Last Word on Nothing.

Nijhuis has an undergraduate degree in biology from Reed College. She lives outside Paonia, Colorado with her husband and young daughter.