UGA Franklin grad receives AAAS Mass Media Fellowship

Alex Music, a 2025 master's degree alumna in geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is a recipient of an AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship. The 10-week summer program places science, engineering, and mathematics students at media organizations nationwide to use their academic training to research, write, and report on pressing issues, sharpening their abilities to communicate complex scientific issues to the public.

This highly competitive program strengthens the connections between scientists and journalists by placing advanced undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate level scientists, engineers, and mathematicians at media organizations nationwide. Fellows work as journalists at media organizations such as National Public Radio, Los Angeles Times, WIRED, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and NOVA. The Mass Media Fellows use their academic training in the sciences as they research, write and report today's headlines, sharpening their abilities to communicate complex scientific issues to non-specialists. Participants come in knowing the importance of translating their work for the public, but they leave with the tools and the know-how to accomplish this important goal.

Music grew up in coastal Florida, seeing firsthand how hurricanes are more than just wind. At UGA she studied how to better quantify and communicate hurricane rainfall hazards. She has multiple years of environmental research experience beginning at Florida State University's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory where she studied the atmospheric origins of marine aerosols while obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Geography.

"Having a lifetime passion for both science and writing, I've been working at the intersection of both since learning it was its own niche-- which, to be fair, has only been about three years," said Music, whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, The Xylom, and The New Climate, and in her work as a news writer at The Red & Black, UGA's independent student-run newspaper. "I previously helped establish the scicomm team at the Resilient Infrastructure & Disaster Response Center in Tallahassee. I am thrilled and grateful to join the Idaho Statesman this summer through support from the American Geophysical Union."

Image: Alex Music, photo by Zack Smith.