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Communications Award

Purpose of the Award
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Communications Award will recognize exceptional achievement in tropical medicine journalism with the potential to educate readers and inform public policy regarding diseases and health conditions specific to poor and underserved populations. The ASTMH Communications Award will honor an individual author (or authors contributing to a body of work) as opposed to an employer, publisher or institution. Eligible entries will include feature-length newspaper articles, magazine articles or series.  Full-length books, book chapters, and articles published solely on-line and broadcast journalism will not be considered at this time. Original research or technical reports, newsletter articles and promotional copy are not eligible for the Award.

Award
ASTMH will award a cash prize of $2,000 to the winner of the ASTMH Communications Award. The 2010 award will be presented at the ASTMH 59th Annual Meeting, to be held November 3-7, 2010, in Atlanta, GA. Reasonable travel and hotel expenses of the principal author of the award-winning article will also be reimbursed.

Nomination, Eligibility, and Judging
Any ASTMH member in good standing may nominate a work. Non-ASTMH members who are the authors of eligible works may also self-submit, as may their publications. For the current round of competition, eligible works must have been published in an English-language magazine or newspaper between 1 August 2009 and 1 August 2010.

The nomination deadline is August 2010.

All entries will undergo initial scoring according to a standardized rating form, leading to three to five final nominees. A five-person Communications Award Judging Committee consisting of three ASTMH members and two professional science journalists will make its final recommendation to the ASTMH executive council regarding this year’s winner by mid-September.

Rules for Submission
Entries must meet the purpose stated above. Any ASTMH member, including the author, may submit material. Non-ASTMH members who are authors of eligible works may also self-submit. There is no submission fee. Entries should be submitted online as PDF or electronic files. The nominated work must be accompanied by a completed online nomination form.

Nomination Form
Submit your nomination online beginning June 2010.

Past Recipients

2008

Charles Piller and Doug Smith
Los Angeles Times
"Unintended Victims of Gates Foundation Generosity"

Honorable Mention

Susan Okie
New England Journal of Medicine
“A New Attack on Malaria”

Patrick Skelly
Natural History
“Sex and the Single Schistosome”

2007

Michael Leahy
The Washington Post
“Breaking the Cycle”

Honorable Mention

Laurie Garrett
Foreign Affairs
“The Challenge of Global Health”

Martin Enserink
Science Magazine
“Welcome to Ethiopia’s Fly Factory”

Robert Poole
Smithsonian Magazine
“The Ethiopia Campaign”

2006

Celia Dugger and Donald McNeil*
The New York Times
“On the Brink”
*cash prize declined per New York Times policy

Honorable Mention
John Donnelly
The Boston Globe
“Life Stories Part 1 and 2: Outlasting AIDS in Africa”

Michael Specter
The New Yorker Magazine
“What Money Can Buy. Millions of Africans die needlessly of diseases each year. Can Bill Gates change that?”

Richard Stone
Science Magazine
“Combating the Bird Flu Menace, Down on the Farm”

2005

Leslie Roberts
Science
“Rotavirus Vaccines’ Second Chance”

Honorable Mention

Jennifer Bails and Luis Fabregas
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
“An Unfinished Miracle”