Contact: Sevda Eris, 415-553-2835, seris@kqed.org
San Francisco, CA — QUEST, KQED’s multimedia science series, won several prestigious science reporting awards in 2012.
Most noteworthy, on November 14, QUEST won an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Kavli Journalism Award for the second year in a row. The winning television segment, “Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct: Big Fixes for Big Quakes,” was produced by Sheraz Sadiq and investigated the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s $4.6 billion, decade-long construction project to overhaul the Hetch Hetchy water system which delivers water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park and five local reservoirs to 2.5 million residents in the Bay Area. Guy Gugliotta, a freelance science writer and former science writer for the Washington Post who helped judge the contest, called the KQED broadcast “a comprehensive look at the vulnerability of the water supply in the San Francisco Bay Area — something that should concern every resident.” He praised the “fascinating use of historical footage, outstanding engineering footage and graphics” to tell the tale. The AAAS awards will be presented in conjunction with the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting held at historic Fenway Park in Boston on February 15, 2013.
QUEST’s Hetch Hetchy television segment also won a Northern California Emmy Award on June 9 in the Informal/Instructional-Feature/Segment category. Complete credits for this segment are: Sheraz Sadiq, segment producer; Michael Goode, associate producer; Linda Peckham, editor; Amy Miller, series producer; Paul Rogers, managing editor.
QUEST also won two Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Northern California Chapter, Excellence in Journalism Awards on October 1 for two of its television segments. “Airborne Wind Energy,” a segment exploring the potential of wind energy, produced by Christopher Bauer with Josh Cassidy associate producer, Amy Miller series producer and Paul Rogers managing editor, won in the Explanatory Journalism(TV/video non-daily) category. “Millie Hughes-Fulford: Scientist in Space,” a segment produced by Gabriela Quiros that explores the potential human benefits derived from research conducted by the first woman to travel into space as a working scientist won in the Feature Storytelling (TV/video non-daily) category. In addition, QUEST radio reporter Lauren Sommer won an SPJ award for the multimedia series “Water and Power” in the Explanatory Journalism (multi-media-daily) category. The series explores the relationship between water and power and the policies required to manage both. Other KQED radio staff also won SPJ awards for their contributions to this series. They include Dan Brekke, Craig Miller, Molly Samuel and Lisa Pickoff-White.