UW grad and international climate reporter returns to campus as spring Science Journalist in Residence
Alec Luhn’s environmental reporting roots reach back to an assignment for The Badger Herald, during his days as a journalism student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Now an award-winning international freelance reporter, Luhn — still on the environmental beat — is returning to UW–Madison as the spring’s Sharon Dunwoody Science Journalist in Residence
Luhn will visit campus April 15-17, sharing his experiences and expertise with students, meeting researchers and participating in a public panel discussion on journalism’s role as the climate crisis deepens.
Alec Luhn
The visiting journalist will join decorated, Wisconsin-based investigative reporter Dee Hall and UW–Madison experts in energy policy and engineered climate solutions like carbon capture systems for a presentation and discussion, “Beyond 1.5°C: Covering Controversial Climate Solutions.” The event, open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. on April 17 in the Multicultural Greek Council Room on the fourth floor of Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.
A 2010 UW–Madison graduate and Stoughton native, Luhn has reported for The Atlantic, the Guardian, National Geographic, The New York Times, Scientific American, TIME, WIRED, CBS News radio and VICE News TV. Now based in London, he has worked from Istanbul and Moscow to cover an array of environmental- and climate-related stories, including wildfires, droughts, earthquakes, melting glaciers and international negotiations of climate policy.
In 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine included Luhn among winners of Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication and his story, “Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?” for Scientific American was among the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Kavli Science Journalism Award winners.
The UW–Madison Science Journalist in Residence program was founded in 1986 and is hosted by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Office of Strategic Communication. It is now part of the Sharon Dunwoody Journalist in Residence program at UW–Madison. The late Dunwoody, a professor of journalism at UW–Madison, co-founded the Science Journalist in Residence program with Terry Devitt, an emeritus director of research communications.
The program has hosted national science writers nearly every semester, in person and virtually, including PBS Eons host Kallie Moore, author and reporter Ben Goldfarb, Radiolab host Latif Nasser, former Scientific American editor-in-chief Laura Helmuth, and reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong.
