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Early-Career Fellowship Program

Collage of photos of members of the TON community.

Applications for the 2027 fellowship period are now open!

The Open Notebook offers a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-career science journalists. During the course of this fellowship, fellows work with a mentor to plan, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook and become part of the TON editorial team. This one-year program offers fellows the opportunity to explore their career interests and passions and to sharpen their skills as part of a talented, supportive, diverse community of past and present fellows and mentors. This fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which has supported this program since 2013.

Key Details

Length: 12 months (part time)
Start Date: February 9, 2027
Location: Remote
Stipend: $6,600 (total, paid in installments)
Deadline: October 31, 2026

The Fellowship Experience

During this remote, part-time fellowship, each fellow will pitch, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook—a mix of “story behind the story” interviews and reported features. They will have weekly phone or video meetings with a mentor who is an experienced science journalist and who will help them shape story ideas, provide reporting and writing guidance, edit fellows’ article drafts, and offer general craft and career-development advice and guidance.

Fellows and mentors also take part in a Slack discussion group composed of other current and former fellowship participants and TON editors. During the fellowship, fellows will participate in cohort-based activities in the fellowship Slack community. Membership in this community will continue after the fellowship ends.

Eligibility

  • The fellowship is open to early-career science journalists.
    • If you live outside the U.S., you are welcome to apply.
  • Applicants must have some prior training or experience specifically in writing for the general public about science. This may include coursework or other training, internships, employment, freelance reporting, or work in student media. This fellowship is not an introductory program for absolute beginners to writing about science for the public. 
    • Applicants whose experience is entirely with academic writing or who have no experience in writing about science at all are not eligible.
  • Applicants must have fewer than three years of regular professional experience in writing about science for the public.
    • Internships and student work do not count toward the fewer-than-three-years requirement.
    • Exceptions to this requirement may also be made for cases in which an applicant has more than three years of professional science writing experience but some or all of that experience is not in English.
  • Applications, including writing samples and letters of recommendation, must be in English.
    • Materials translated into English from another language are acceptable.

Have strong potential but haven’t published a science story yet? We recommend starting with our Getting Started in Science Journalism page and our Science Journalism Master Classes before applying for this fellowship.

"I owe my whole career to The Open Notebook. Having TON take a shot on me was monumental, in a country like Mexico where there was no clear path. That gave me the courage to take the next steps in my career. That’s why it’s always been The Open Notebook for me."
Rodrigo Pérez Ortega2017 Early-Career Fellow
Rodrigo Pérez Ortega
"The TON fellowship is a primary reason why I am still a science journalist, regularly reporting on public health. The fellowship solidified my writing skills, and connected me with colleagues and mentors whose advice I still trust today. It sharpened my interviewing skills, and taught me to laser focus on writing clear-cut advice. The skills I gained as a fellow were the start of a years-long master course I’m still enrolled in."
Katherine J. Wu2020 Early-Career Fellow
Katherine J. Wu
“The Open Notebook’s early-career program is one of the few training opportunities open to all young journalists in the world. The generosity that permeated the fellowship experience has become a cornerstone of my approach to science journalism. Since the fellowship, I’ve become a fierce advocate for democratizing science journalism, particularly in Latin America.”
María Paula Rubiano A.2021 Early-Career Fellow
María Paula Rubiano A.
"The Open Notebook's fellowship program did so much to demystify what had felt like a daunting profession. TON's rigorous editorial process, long runway to publication, and commitment to including actionable advice in each feature pushed both my reporting and writing craft forward. Mostly, though, TON connected me with a community of journalist editors and sources alike who were endlessly generous in sharing the big ideas they weigh in their work."
Kate Fishman2024 Early-Career Fellow
Kate Fishman
"My TON fellowship was an essential springboard as I transitioned from science into journalism. It gave me the opportunity to interview my idols and learn how they performed my dream job. I still rely on many of the tips I gleaned from reporting my fellowship stories. My mentor also helped me navigate the inevitable ups and downs of launching a freelance career. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would not be where I am today without the fellowship."
Julia Rosen2015 Early-Career Fellow
Julia Rosen
"Coming from academia, The Open Notebook’s early-career fellowship program taught me how to be a journalist through interviews with dozens of other journalists. Writing about writing built my understanding, confidence, and rigor, and with the help of my incredible TON mentors, I’ve since had the opportunity to write at some of my dream outlets. I owe my career to this place."
Celia Ford2022 Early-Career Fellow
Celia Ford
"The TON Fellowship was foundational to my career as a science journalist. Plus, never would you find a kinder, more caring, and more talented family of peers and veterans who are eager to help early-career journalists like me in navigating the craft and industry."
Shi En Kim2022 Early-Career Fellow
Shi En Kim
"I was an early-career fellow at The Open Notebook in 2023, and there hasn't been a major step in my career since then that doesn't make me think about all the benefits I gained from my fellowship experience. TON gave me my first opportunity to write a long-form feature story—something I hadn’t done before because I didn’t think my writing skills in English (a language that isn't my own) were good enough. That experience made me feel much more confident in myself as a writer."
Humberto Basilio2023 Early-Career Fellow
Humberto Basilio
"My mentor and the editors at TON encouraged me to pursue my reporting interests with my fellowship articles, and provided thoughtful, well-explained feedback that was easy to learn from and helped me improve the quality of my drafts for the next assignment. I'm so grateful that TON took a chance on me, because I went from feeling lost and intimidated in science journalism to more confident and excited to ask questions and share with my peers."
Emma Gometz2024 Early-Career Fellow
Emma Gometz

Time Commitment

This is a part-time, remote fellowship. The fellowship involves reporting and writing four articles of 1,500-2,000 words for The Open Notebook, as well as meeting regularly with an assigned mentor and taking part in editorial discussions and cohort-based activities on Slack. We estimate that for most fellows, the fellowship takes about 5-7 hours per week on average; however, the amount of time the fellowship takes will depend on fellows’ experience and working style as well as the phase in the reporting/writing/editing process for any given article. Some weeks will almost certainly require more time and some will require less.

PLEASE NOTE: Although it is part-time, this fellowship requires a significant weekly time commitment, and juggling the fellowship along with other commitments can be challenging. Before applying, please consider carefully whether you will be able to devote sufficient time to completing articles as specified in the fellowship description. We have a rigorous editorial process and fellows must be committed to meeting article deadlines and filing stories on time and turning around revisions on schedule. This includes making time for 1) conducting phone interviews with sources, ordinarily during U.S. daytime hours; 2) weekly phone or video meetings with mentors; 3) multiple rounds of editing and revision for most stories; 4) annotating stories for fact-checking; and 5) participating in conversations in the fellowship Slack community.

Selection Criteria

Priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate:

  • A strong intention to work primarily as a professional science journalist. (Note: This fellowship is intended for people whose main goal is to do journalism, as opposed to other forms of science communication.)
  • Some training and/or experience writing about science for the public. 
  • Some understanding of the science journalism profession, the challenges science journalists commonly face, and the ways in which you would like to grow as a science journalist
  • Familiarity with The Open Notebook and the types of topics we tend to cover
  • An ability to generate good story ideas suitable for The Open Notebook
  • A commitment to delivering your best work and being conscientious about deadlines
  • Strong writing ability (If English is not your first language, we do take this into consideration and do not expect flawless writing. However, for a successful experience in this fellowship you must have a fairly high level of proficiency in English.)

Required Application Materials

The application form for this fellowship includes the following:

  • Responses to questions about:
    • Why you are interested in this fellowship and what you hope to learn
    • Your prior training and/or experience in writing stories about science for the general public
    • Any particular skills, interests, or perspectives that you would bring to this fellowship
    • Your overall plans for during the fellowship period (for example, will you simultaneously be finishing a dissertation? Freelancing? Seeking full-time employment somewhere? Doing something else?) 
  • Short proposals for two TON features or multimedia stories that you think would be suitable for publication at The Open Notebook. These can take the form of behind-the-story writer interviews; reported features on some element of the craft of science writing; roundtable discussions; or some other creative, feature-length project centered on the craft of science writing. Please familiarize yourself with the types of stories that The Open Notebook publishes. (Note: These are brief, 100-word proposals, not full-scale pitches.)
  • A resume or CV
  • One letter of reference. This can be from a professor, editor, mentor, supervisor, or other colleague—whoever you think can best speak to your skills and qualities as they relate to science journalism and to this fellowship experience. Letters of reference should not be from family members.
  • Two writing or multimedia samples of work aimed at the general public (not scientific/academic writing). If you are sharing audio or multimedia clips, you can simply put the URLs for the work into a PDF to upload in this section. (Samples must be in English. Translated materials are acceptable.)
  • Optional: Additional information about you. We strongly encourage writers from all types of backgrounds to apply. If you are a member of any group or community that has historically been marginalized or underrepresented in U.S. journalism, we invite you to let us know. This is entirely optional, and any information you disclose will be kept confidential

Deadline

Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central time on October 31, 2026.

(Note: The deadline for reference letters is November 7, 2026. We recommend that you notify letter-writers well in advance of the deadline so that they have time to write you a well-considered letter.)

Apply Now

Questions?

If you have any questions, please email us at editors@theopennotebook.com. (Please first read the instructions above carefully to make sure that your question is not answered on this page. We are unable to reply to eligibility inquiries if the answers are provided above.)

Past and Current Early-Career Fellows

FellowYearMentor(s)
Tina Casagrand2014Kendall Powell
Tiên Nguyễn2014Alexandra Witze
Geoffrey Giller2015April Reese
Julia Rosen2015Cameron Walker
Jane C. Hu2016Stephen Ornes
Christina Selby2016Jill Adams
Rodrigo Pérez Ortega2017Helen Fields and April Reese
Rachel Zamzow2017Laura Beil
Olga Kreimer2018Hillary Rosner
Aneri Pattani2018Azeen Ghorayshi
Jennifer Lu2019Maya L. Kapoor
Knvul Sheikh2019Roxanne Khamsi
Shira Feder2020Cynthia Graber
Katherine J. Wu2020Torie Bosch
Pedro Márquez-Zacarías2021Sarah Zhang
María Paula Rubiano A.2021Brooke Jarvis
Abdullahi Tsanni2021Chrissie Giles
Carolyn Wilke2021Roberta Kwok
Celia Ford2022Sabrina Imbler
Shi En Kim2022Sarah Gilman
Pratik Pawar2022Nidhi Subbaraman and Stephanie M. Lee
Humberto Basilio2023Amy Maxmen
Darren Incorvaia2023Madeline Ostrander
Giuliana Viglione2023Sarah Gilman
Kate Fishman2024Sarah Gilman
Emma Gometz2024Kristen Ozelli
Claudia López Lloreda2024Bill Andrews
Lucila Pinto2025Carmen Drahl
William von Herff2025Victoria Jaggard
Skyler Ware2025Sarah Gilman
Elise Cutts2026Anil Ananthaswamy
Xilena Pinedo2026Sarah Gilman
Rohini Subrahmanyam2026Kamala Thiagarajan

Stories by Our Fellows

"The Open Notebook is an incredibly generous project, a gift to the science writer community. Everyone involved—the TON creators, the interviewers, the writers who reveal their methods—is helping teach the rest of us a master class in science writing."
Laura HelmuthPast president of the National Association of Science Writers
"Writing is a lonely art. The vast majority of the process, from coming up with ideas to structuring a piece, is carried out in solitude. When you start out, you barely have a clue about what you’re doing, let alone what seasoned professionals get up to. Getting those pros to deconstruct their own methods for all to see is a massive boon to aspiring science writers."
Ed YongPulitzer Prize–winning journalist
"When I discovered The Open Notebook as a newbie engineer-turned-science-writer from India, struggling to understand the nuances of science writing, I was blown over by the wealth of resources that were free! Reading each of those carefully curated articles, written by writers from all over the world, has helped me become a better science journalist. If there is a way to democratize science writing, TON has shown us how to do it, and I hope it will continue to guide many like me."
Spoorthy RamanFreelance science journalist
"The Open Notebook offers not only a wealth of resources, it provides community to science writers at every stage of their career. TON embodies generosity. By reading the site’s expert and timely articles, we can become better storytellers together."
Tiên NguyễnIndependent science journalist and video producer
"I recommend The Open Notebook to every writer, not just science journalists. Their story dissections are amazing, their pitch database is a goldmine, and their profiles of other writers are the best way to score insider tips and/or feel less alone in the struggle."
Nicola Twilley Co-host of the Gastropod podcast, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, and frequent contributor to The New Yorker
“The Open Notebook is the home of science journalism. It’s not surprising that all science writers are devoted to the priceless resources it offers. TON’s legacy will be defined by how it has shaped the careers of journalists from across the world, including me.”
Abdullahi TsanniFreelance science journalist
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