Nadia Drake
Nadia Drake | |
|---|---|
.png) Drake at NASA Headquarters in 2023 | |
| Education | Cornell University (AB, PhD) University of California, Santa Cruz (MS) |
| Occupation | Science journalist |
| Parent(s) | Frank Drake Amahl Shakhashiri Drake |
Nadia Drake is an American science journalist of Lebanese descent who specializes in covering space exploration, space science, and the search for life beyond Earth[1]. Currently freelance, she was a long-time contributing writer at National Geographic and formerly the interim Physics Editor at Quanta Magazine[2].
Early life and education
[edit]Drake grew up near Santa Cruz, California.
In 2002, she earned an AB in biology, psychology, and dance at Cornell University.[3][4]
She returned to Cornell for her PhD in genetics and developmental biology in 2004, and defended her dissertation in 2009.[3] Her PhD thesis is titled Phenotypic consequences of imprinting perturbations at Rasgrf1 in mouse.[5]
In 2011 she graduated from the Science Communication (SciCom) program at UC Santa Cruz.[4]
Career
[edit]Drake worked in a clinical genetics lab at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine after earning her undergraduate degree from Cornell University.[6][4]
During her residence at the UCSC's SciCom program, she was a reporting intern for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, The San Jose Mercury News, and Nature.[4]
Afterwards she moved to Washington, D.C. for an internship at Science News, which turned into a job as the magazine's astronomy reporter.[4]
Drake then returned to the San Francisco Bay Area for a science reporting job at Wired.[4]
After that, she was hired as a contributing writer at National Geographic, where she wrote digital news stories and print magazine features until 2023[4]. She has also been a freelance contributor for publications including to Scientific American[7], The New York Times[8], The Wall Street Journal[9], and The Atlantic[10].
In 2022, NASA appointed Drake to its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena independent study panel, where she was one of 16 experts tasked with identifying a role for the agency in addressing the question of UAP.[11]
Since 2024, Drake has been working as a consultant with ETH-Zurich[4]; in 2024 she joined the board of directors of the SETI Institute as observer.[12]
Book
[edit]Drake is the author of Little Book of Wonders: Celebrating the Gifts of the Natural World (National Geographic Books, 2016).[citation needed]
Awards and honours
[edit]- In 2016 Drake received the American Astronomical Society's Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award for her article "Scientists in Flying Telescope Race to Intercept Pluto's Shadow," which appeared July 3, 2015, on National Geographic's website.[13]
- In 2017 she won the David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism from the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society for "Found! Gravitational Waves, or a Wrinkle in Spacetime" which was published on National Geographic's website on February 11, 2016.[14]
- In 2024, the American Geophysical Union awarded its Walter M. Sullivan award to Drake for “The Alien Moon Shot,” a feature that was National Geographic’s cover story in October 2023.[15]
Personal life
[edit]Drake is the daughter of SETI pioneer Frank Drake and Amahl Drake (née Shakhashiri).[16] Her mother is from Lebanon and emigrated as a teenager.[17]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Nadia Drake | Science Journalist". Nadia Drake. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ "About Quanta Magazine". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- 1 2 Nadia Drake '11 joins National Geographic "Phenomena" blog, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Communication Program, April 8, 2014, retrieved November 20, 2017
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nadia Drake, resume
- ↑ Drake, Nadia Meghann (2010). "Phenotypic consequences of imprinting perturbations at Rasgrf1 in mouse". Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. (See Ras superfamily and Ras-GRF1.)
- ↑ Zimmer, Carl (March 10, 2014). "Please Welcome Nadia Drake | the Newest Member of Phenomena". carlzimmer.com. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
- ↑ "Stories by Nadia Drake". Scientific American. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ "Nadia Drake - The New York Times". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ Drake, Nadia (2026-04-23). "The Hunt for Extraterrestrial Life Enters a New Frontier". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ Drake, Nadia (2018-05-10). "Nadia Drake, The Atlantic". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ "NASA Announces Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study Team Members - NASA". 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ "Nadia Drake Joins SETI Institute Board of Directors as Observer". seti.org. August 20, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
- ↑ Reddy, Vishnu (May 10, 2016). "AAS Division For Planetary Sciences Announces 2016 Prize Winners". Division for Planetary Sciences. American Astronomical Society. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ↑ "The David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism | High Energy Astrophysics Division". head.aas.org. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
- ↑ "AGU honors journalists Nadia Drake and Zack Savitsky for excellence in science journalism". AGU Newsroom. 2024-09-18. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
- ↑ Rowan-Robinson, Michael (2022-10-13). "Frank Drake obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
- ↑ Drake, Nadia (August 2, 2016). "How 'The Land of the Stars' Shaped Astronomy (and Me)". National Geographic. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1980 births
- Living people
- American people of Lebanese descent
- University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
- American science journalists
- Cornell University alumni
- 21st-century American science writers
- 21st-century American women non-fiction writers
- American science bloggers
- American women bloggers
- American women science writers