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The American Geophysical Union is accepting nominations for its 2025 journalism awards through 31 March 2025. This year, we offer:

Click here to submit a nomination

The awards honor science stories reported by journalists in the past year (i.e. 2025 awards honor stories first published in 2024).

Journalists are welcome to nominate their own work for these awards, or someone may nominate a story or individual on the reporter’s behalf. Nominations may be from any country, in any language (English translation required), and in any news medium except books. Eligible news stories must be focused on one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU and be published in an editorially independent journalistic outlet. Please note stories published in Eos are not eligible, opinion pieces are ineligible, and AGU does not currently offer an award for institutional science writing.

A nominee may submit only one entry for each award in a given year (i.e., one entry for the Perlman and one entry for the Sullivan). Each award consists of a plaque and a $5,000 award; awardees also receive up to $1,000 in travel costs to attend AGU24 in Washington, D.C., and two tickets to attend the Honors Banquet at the conference.

Additional nomination requirements and instructions for the awards can be found below. There are no fees for nominating your own or others' work for any of AGU's journalism awards. Please follow instructions for uploading documents carefully for blind judging; otherwise, your submission will be ineligible.

Questions? Wondering if a story is eligible? Contact AGU's Media Relations team at news@agu.org. 

Perlman Award

The David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—News recognizes excellence in science news reporting, generally produced under deadline pressure of one week or less. It is named for the late David Perlman, longtime science editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

This award recognizes excellence in reporting a news story or series that meets one or more of the following criteria: Brings new information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public’s attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, or makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences without sacrificing accuracy.

The selection committee will also consider accuracy, initiative, originality and clarity. The committee may also consider the timeliness of the news story, whether it was published first, before other media outlets, and whether it contains information of exceptional originality, importance, or surprise.

Nominees:

  • Nominations are open to journalists working in any medium, except books.

  • A nominee must be the author of the submitted story. In the case of collaborative efforts, those involved must determine who is or are the nominee(s) up to four people, which can include contributors to the audio and visual aspect of the entry. Story elements (e.g., photos, graphics, video) will not be considered in judging if their creators are not nominated.

  • The nominee must be an author who is employed in one the following arenas:

    1. Print or electronic news publication,

    2. Broadcast or cable station, or broadcast network

    3. Freelance journalist.

  • A person or group may be nominated or may self-nominate for both the Perlman and Sullivan awards in one year. But no individual or group is permitted to win both awards in the same year.

  • Nominees who have won the Perlman Award during the past two award cycles are not eligible to enter a nomination for the Perlman Award for the current award cycle. (i.e., the 2023 and 2024 Perlman Award recipients are not eligible for the 2025 award.)

Entries:

  • Eligible entries must have been first published between 1 January and 31 December of the year prior to the award year (i.e., must have been first published between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024 to be eligible for the 2025 award).

  • Eligible entries must have been intended for, and available to, the general public.

  • Entries must be in English (or include an English translation).

  • A nominee may submit only one entry for the award in a given year. If a nominee has multiple entries, AGU staff will contact the nominee to clarify which story they'd prefer to advance to judging.

  • Eligible news stories must focus on one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU. Click here for a full listing. Please note: Policy-focused stories without a substantial discussion of the science behind the policy are ineligible. Email us at news@agu.org if you have questions regarding this criterion.

  • If each segment of a series was identified at the time of publication as being part of the series, the series is eligible to be judged as one entry. Alternatively, coverage of an ongoing activity, such as a scientific society meeting or a natural event, can be regarded as a series. However, no more than three segments of any series may be submitted for judging.

  • Entry instructions:
    • Upload anonymized pdfs with identifying information or features (e.g., name, outlet, links, identifiable fonts) removed, and the story headline as a header on each page.
    • A brief explanation of the timeframe in which the story came together (must be 7 days or shorter).
    • If a photographer/illustrator is not being nominated, please exclude any photos or graphics from the pdf.
    • Entries with photos/graphics, where the photographer/designer is included in the nomination package, should add photos and captions (no credit) to the bottom of the story text.
    • Entries with online-only elements, such as interactive graphics or video, should link to the web version at the top while hiding the outlet in-line (ex.: "Click here for web version with map and interactive graphic.") Judges will be instructed to read the story first, then visit the web version.
    • For audio/video entries, you'll need to upload an anonymized transcript with host/producer names and outlet redacted; scientist/guest names can stay.
    • For entries in a language other than English, upload an anonymized translation.
    • No letter of support is needed.

Sullivan Award

The Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—Features recognizes excellence in science feature reporting, generally produced under a deadline of longer than one week. It is named for the late Walter Sullivan of The New York Times, who was the first recipient of the award.

This award recognizes excellence in reporting and writing a feature story or series that meets one or more of the following criteria: Brings timely information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public’s attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, or makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences, without sacrificing accuracy. The selection committee will also consider accuracy, initiative, originality and clarity.

Nominees:

  • Nominations are open to journalists working in any medium, except books.

  • A nominee must be the author of the submitted story. In the case of collaborative efforts, those involved must determine who is or are the nominee(s) up to four people, which can include contributors to the audio and visual aspect of the entry. Story elements (e.g., photos, graphics, video) will not be considered in judging if their creators are not included in the nomination.

  • Nominators are welcome to submit up to three parts of a multi-part series, or any select parts. The selection committee will evaluate all submitted parts of a series collectively as one submission.

  • The nominee must be an author who is employed in one the following arenas:

    1. Print or electronic news publication,

    2. Broadcast or cable station, or broadcast network,

    3. Freelance journalist.

  • A person or group may be nominated or may self-nominate for both the Sullivan and Perlman awards in one year. But no individual or group is permitted to win both awards in the same year.

  • Nominees who have won the Sullivan Award during the past two award cycles are not eligible to enter a nomination for the Sullivan Award for the current award cycle. (i.e., the 2023 and 2024 Sullivan Award recipients are not eligible for the 2025 award.)

Entries:

  • Eligible entries must have been first published between 1 January and 31 December of the year prior to the award year (i.e., must have been first published between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024 to be eligible for the 2025 award).

  • Eligible entries must have been intended for, and available to, the general public.

  • Entries must be in English (or include an English translation).

  • A nominee may submit only one entry for the award in a given year. If a nominee has multiple entries, AGU staff will contact the nominee to clarify which story they'd prefer to advance to judging.

  • Eligible stories must focus on one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU. Click here for a full listing. Please note: Policy-focused stories without a substantial discussion of the science behind the policy are ineligible. Email us at news@agu.org if you have questions regarding this criterion.

  • If each segment of a series was identified at the time of publication as being part of the series, the series is eligible to be judged as one entry. However, no more than three segments of any series may be submitted for judging. (Please note: Whereas coverage of an ongoing activity, such as a scientific society meeting or a natural event, may be regarded as a series for the Perlman Award, such coverage is not regarded as a series for submission for the Sullivan Award.)

  • Entry instructions:
    • Upload anonymized pdfs with identifying information or features (e.g., name, outlet, links, identifiable fonts) removed, and the story headline as a header on each page.
    • If a photographer/illustrator is not being nominated, please exclude any photos or graphics from the pdf.
    • Entries with photos/graphics, where the photographer/designer is included in the nomination package, should add photos and captions (no credit) to the bottom of the story text.
    • Entries with online-only elements, such as interactive graphics or video, should link to the web version at the top while hiding the outlet in-line (ex.: "Click here for web version with map and interactive graphic.") Judges will be instructed to read the story first, then visit the web version.
    • For audio/video entries, you'll need to upload an anonymized transcript with host/producer names and outlet redacted; scientist/guest names can stay.
    • For entries in a language other than English, upload an anonymized translation.
    • No letter of support is needed.