Dan Fagin (born February 1, 1963) is an American journalist who specializes in

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

. He won the 2014

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...

for his best-selling book '' Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation''. ''Toms River'' also won the

Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism The Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is an annual literary award for "a journalist whose work has brought public attention to important issues", awarded by the New York Public Library. It was established in 1987 in memory of ...

, the

National Academies Communication Award The National Academies Communication Award was an annual prize bestowed in recognition of creative works that help the public understand topics in science, engineering or medicine. The awards were established in 2003 and administered by the Keck Fut ...

, and the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award of the

Society of Environmental Journalists The Society of Environmental Journalists is a non-profit national journalism organization created by and for journalists who report environmental topics in the news media. On its website, the organization says that "SEJ’s mission is to strength ...

, among other literary prizes.

Early life

Fagin was born in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

and attended high school at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, where he was friends with another future author,

Blake Bailey John Blake Bailey (born July 1, 1963) is an American writer and educator. Bailey is known for his literary biographies of Richard Yates, John Cheever, Charles Jackson, and Philip Roth. He is the editor of the Library of America omnibus editi ...

. Fagin graduated in 1985 from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, where he served as the editor-in-chief of ''

The Dartmouth ''The Dartmouth'' is the daily student newspaper at Dartmouth College and America's oldest college newspaper. Originally named the ''Dartmouth Gazette'', the first issue was published on August 27, 1799, under the motto "Here range the world— ...

'' (the college's daily newspaper).

Career

From 1991-2005, Fagin was the environmental writer at ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'', where he was a principal member of two reporting teams that were finalists for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

. Fagin is a former president of the Society of Environmental Journalists. In 2003, his stories about cancer epidemiology won the Science Journalism Award of 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 ...

, and also won the Science-in-Society Award of the

National Association of Science Writers The National Association of Science Writers (NASW) was created in 1934 by a dozen science journalists and reporters in New York City.

. Fagin is a Professor of Journalism at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and the director of the NYU Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.The Science Communication Workshops at NYU: Our Faculty
. New York University. journalism.nyu.edu. Retrieved June 16, 2017. He is also the founder and director of the NYU Science Communication Workshops. His book '' Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation'' was published March 19, 2013. In a review, Abigail Zuger in the ''New York Times'' called it "a new classic of science reporting." He is also the co-author with Marianne Lavelle of the book ''Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law and Endangers Your Health'' (1997). Fagin is currently working on a book about monarch butterflies and the future of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Personal life

He is married to Alison Frankel, a senior legal writer at Thomson-Reuters; they have two children and live in Sea Cliff, NY.

References

External links

Dan Fagin
official website *New York Time

by Fagin about parallels between chemical industry practices in Basel (starting in the 1860s), Cincinnati, Toms River and now China. *New York Time

by Fagin about a trip to Basel and outsourcing of toxic manufacturing practices. *Scientific America
story
by Fagin about

molecular epidemiology Molecular epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology and medical science that focuses on the contribution of potential genetic and environmental risk factors, identified at the molecular level, to the etiology, distribution and prevention of disease ...

research in China. *NP
interview
with Fagin and other journalists about the state of environmental reporting.
Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program
at New York University * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagin, Dan American non-fiction environmental writers Environmental journalists 1963 births Living people Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners New York University faculty Newsday people Writers from Oklahoma City American male journalists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers