The European Geosciences Union (EGU) has named journalists Kate Ravilious and Liz Kalaugher as the winners of its second Science Journalism Fellowship competition for projects on reporting continental earthquakes and climate-change effects on ecosystems, respectively. Ravilious will receive €3,500 to join a research team travelling to central Asia, and Kalaugher €1,500 to cover expenses related to a trip to Finland.
Kate Ravilious proposal focuses on Earthquakes without Frontiers, a project involving a team of scientists studying continental faults stretching from southern Europe to central Asia and China that could pose major risks to populations in these regions. She aims to "communicate how little we understand continental earthquakes, how dangerous they can be, and how projects like this one could save many lives in the future," she writes in her winning proposal.
Liz Kalaugher proposes to report on field work at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in the north of Finland, a region where "the first effects of climate change are starting to bite," she writes. She will follow scientists to the European Arctic to communicate their research on climate-change impacts on soils, vegetation and local fauna, and to understand how resilient ecosystems are to changes in temperature.
Both winners are invited to attend the EGU General Assembly, taking place in Vienna from the 7-12 April 2013.