Abstract
Stephen Hall, a freelance science writer and science‐communication teacher, received the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism–Features at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 5 December 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Hall was honored for the article “At Fault?” published 15 September 2011 in Nature. The article examines the legal, personal, and political repercussions from a 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy for seismologists who had attempted to convey seismic risk assessments to the public. The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the medieval town and caused more than 300 deaths. Six scientists and one government official were subsequently convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison for inadequately assessing and mischaracterizing the risks to city residents, despite the inexact nature of seismic risk assessment. The Sullivan award is for work published with a deadline pressure of more than 1 week.
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