Hester van Santen

Staff Writer at NRC Media

Hester van Santen is a staff writer at NRC Media, the publishing company of the Dutch daily newspapers NRC Handelsblad and nrc.next. Van Santen has worked at the NRC science desk for 12 years, specializing in life sciences. Her articles cover a diverse range of topics, from food science and biodiversity to human physiology and scholarly publishing.  In 2017, she was named European Science Writer of the Year by the Association of British Science Writers for her story “Peer Review Post-Mortem: How a Flawed Aging Study was Published in Nature” (featured on Showcase). The jury characterized her work as “remarkably well researched” and “full of creativity.” Last September, van Santen took up a new position at NRC. She now covers energy and sustainability at the economy & finance desk. Van Santen holds an MSc in Biology and Journalism from the University of Groningen.