Prize for Science Writing
From the furthest reaches of the universe to the microscopic world of our genes, science offers writers the kind of scope other subjects simply can’t match. Good writing about science can be moving, funny, exhilarating or poetic, but it will always be honest and rigorous about the research that underlies it.
To recognise the best of the best, NewSouth Publishing has established a new annual prize for the best short non-fiction piece on science written for a general audience. The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing is named in honour of Australia’s first Nobel Laureates William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg and is supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
First prize is $7000. Two runners up will each receive a prize of $1500.
Winning entries will be included in NewSouth’s anthology, The Best Australian Science Writing 2012. Other short-listed entries may also be included at the discretion of the editor.
The Braggs won the 1915 Nobel Prize for physics for their work on the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays. Both scientists led enormously productive lives and left a lasting legacy. William Henry Bragg was a firm believer in making science popular among young people, and his Christmas lectures for students – a tradition he initiated – were described as models of clarity and intellectual excitement.
The biographical notes on the Braggs are from the Australian Dictionary of Biography and the Nobel Prize website.
