Sandi Doughton

Science Writer

Sandi Doughton has been covering science, medicine and the environment for more than 25 years, first in New Mexico, then in the Pacific Northwest. Doughton set out to be a biologist, but after graduate research that required her to stand in a walk-in freezer and drip rattlesnake venom into test tubes, she decided to combine her interests in journalism and science. Her science reporting has taken her to the Bering Sea, where she covered climate change and chased seals over pancake ice, and to Africa, where she wrote about the Gates Foundation’s efforts to develop a vaccine for malaria. Earth science is one of her favorite subjects, because it’s a great example of the way research can make a difference in people’s lives. Doughton’s story “Laser maps reveal slide risk with startling clarity, but few citizens know they exist,” (featured on Showcase) earned her the prestigious Perlman Award from the American Geophysical Union in 2015.