Charles Piller is an American

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

and author who writes for ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' magazine . His focus is on health and

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

Journalism

Prior to writing at ''Science'', Piller was an associate editor at ''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...

'' magazine and wrote for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', the

STAT STAT, Stat. , or stat may refer to: * Stat (system call), a Unix system call that returns file attributes of an inode * ''Stat'' (TV series), an American sitcom that aired in 1991 * Stat (website), a health-oriented news website * STAT protein, a ...

website, and ''

The Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

''. At the ''Times'', he investigated the impact of the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

on Africa. In July 2022, he authored an investigation published in ''Science'' that questioned the authenticity of images used in

Sylvain Lesné Sylvain E. Lesné (born 1974) is a French neuroscientist and associate professor at the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School, known for his research into Alzheimer's disease. He is the primary author of a 2 ...

's research on

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

at the

University of Minnesota Medical School The University of Minnesota Medical School is the medical school of the University of Minnesota. It is a combination of two campuses situated in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Medical School is also part of one of ...

Center for Public Integrity

Along with Charles Lewis and Alejandro Benes, Piller was a founding member of the

Center for Public Integrity The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to c ...

, where he served as board chair.

Books

* ''Gene Wars: Military Control over the New Genetic Technologies'' (with Keith R. Yamamoto), Beech Tree Books * ''The Fail-Safe Society: Community Defiance and the End of American Technological Optimism'', University of California Press

Awards and honors

Piller was recognized with the 2016 Online Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award from the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

for an investigation of clinical trials, together with Natalia Bronshtein, while at STAT. In 2014, the

First Amendment Coalition The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) is a nonprofit public interest organization committed to freedom of speech, more open and accountable government, and public participation in civic affairs. Founded in 1988, FAC's activities include "test case" ...

honored him with the Free Speech & Open Government Award for his ''Sacramento Bee'' investigation of construction of the

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland ...

that led to legislative changes in California to enhance "transparency and accountability". Evident Change (formerly the National Council on Crime & Delinquency) recognized Piller, along with Deborah Anderluh and Amy Pyle, for 2010 reporting at ''The Sacramento Bee'' on "CA Prisons: Behavior Modification Experiments and Suppression of Due Process". In 2008, the

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is an Arlington, Virginia-based non-profit organization of scientists, clinicians, students and program professionals whose longstanding mission is to promote global health through the ...

awarded him, along with Doug Smith, their Communications Award for reporting in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of "Unintended Victims of Gates Foundation Generosity".

References

External links

*
Science podcast July 22, 2022
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piller, Charles Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American investigative journalists Los Angeles Times people 20th-century American journalists American male journalists American male writers