About Me
Nicholas St. Fleur is an award-winning science journalist and a children's STEM author based on Long Island, New York.
He is currently a general assignment reporter covering racial health disparities with STAT and an associate editorial director of events crafting captivating live journalism, both virtual and (eventually) in-person. He joined STAT in the fall of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic as a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow writing about the intersection of race, medicine, and the life sciences
His reporting on colorectal cancer, which included recording his own colonoscopy, was featured on "Good Morning America."
Before joining STAT, St. Fleur was a science reporter and freelancer for The New York Times. He has written more than 350 stories for The Times as a regular contributor to the science desk's Trilobites column. Dubbed a "dead-world correspondent" by his editor there, he has reported on archaeology, paleontology, human evolution, natural history, space, and other curiosities of the cosmos. His other areas of interest include citizen science, K-12 STEM education, and issues of diversity in science.
In March of 2020, he published his first children's book, "Did You Know? Dinosaurs" (DK Publishing and the Smithsonian).
St. Fleur joined The New York Times in 2015 and worked as a staff reporter on the science desk for three years before moving to California. As a freelancer in the Bay Area, he continued to write for the science section, as well as for The New York Times for Kids and other publications.
While at the Times, he was a lead reporter covering the 2017 Great American Eclipse. In 2018 he received the Gene S. Stuart Award from the Society for American Archaeology for the feature story “Medical Tales from a Crypt in Lithuania,” and for his coverage of mummies, pyramids, and shipwrecks. He also received an honorable mention from the D.C. Science Writers Association's 2017 Newsbrief Award for his story "Newly Discovered Gecko Escapes Danger Naked and Alive."
Prior to joining The Times, he reported for The Atlantic, where he covered everything from space probes on comets to protests on the New York City streets. He interned at Scientific American, Science, NPR, and The San Jose Mercury News.
St. Fleur graduated from Cornell University, where he studied biology, minored in communication, and served as the science editor of The Cornell Daily Sun. He completed his graduate work in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
St. Fleur's interest in journalism began in 2010 when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the city where his parents were once from. He was captivated by the way journalists and medical correspondents covered the death and devastation. It inspired him to pursue a career path that melded medicine and media, and allowed him to unearth the humanity within every science story.
Email him at scifleur@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @scifleur
Photo Credit: Miranda Stratton, Ph.D
Science & Health Stories
A selection of my recent science and health stories. View my complete portfolio for The New York Times and STAT.
STAT: A national panel of medical experts recommended on Tuesday that most Americans start being screened...
STAT: An analysis of the demographics of a decade’s worth of vaccine clinical trials has found that Black Americans, Latinos, American Indians...
STAT: Kamala Harris is calling for sweeping action to curb racial inequities in pregnancy and childbirth.
STAT: She was feverishly searching online and poring over state public health websites in an attempt to book a vaccination appointment for her mother in California.
Health experts want to prioritize people of color for a Covid-19 vaccine. But how should it be done?
STAT: As the U.S. edges closer to approving a vaccine for Covid-19, a difficult decision is emerging as a central issue:
STAT: The presidents of two historically Black universities in New Orleans thought they were doing a public service...
NYT: A skull found in a South African cave suggests that the species went through a process of microevolution during a chaotic environmental shift.
NYT: The men might have been among the earliest to be kidnapped from their homeland and brought to the Americas.
NYT: The excavation found the oldest known Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of our species, living around the same time as other extinct hominins.
Feature Articles
View a selection of my longer stories and read them online.
Children's and Parenting Stories
A selection of my STEM stories for young readers. The New York Times for Kids is print-only and runs every last Sunday of the month.
NYT: How to find constellations, planets and stories in the sky.
NatGeo Family: COVID-19 vaccines are coming. Help kids understand how they work in the body.
NYT: If you need pointers for how to conduct a toy dinosaur battle...
The New York Times for Kids
NYT: Paleontologists say parents should nurture children’s romance with playing with dinosaurs...
Big Science! Clockwise from Top: The Muon g-2 electromagnet getting shipped from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island to Fermilab in Chicago; The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL; The Large Hadron Collider at CERN
Profiles & Nonfiction Biographies
Laura Dassama uses structural biology expertise to search for sickle cell disease therapies
NatGeo Kids: How this congressman used ‘good trouble’ to fight for civil rights
Chemical & Engineering News:
As an orthopedic trauma doctor, Basilia Nwankwo takes care of some of the most pressing cases at Howard University Hospital
NatGeo Kids: How this pilot inspired people to fly to greater heights
Chemical & Engineering News:
NatGeo Kids: How this math whiz helped explorers reach new worlds
NatGeo Kids: How this scientist nurtured the land—and people’s minds
The New York Times for Kids
Books
Dazzle your dino-lovers at home with my informational picture book, "Did You Know? Dinosaur." They will have a great time learning cool new facts about these awesome prehistoric creatures. You can purchase the book here.
Virtual Events and STAT+ Conversations
I host, create, and moderate live journalism events on pressing health care issues.
Video and Virtual Visits
Recent Talks and Panel Conversations:
2021
Aug:
- Virtual talk: Stanford University ADVANCE scholars, a group of incoming Stanford Ph.D. students.
July:
- Virtual talk to Johns Hopkins Science Journalism Students about race and health care.
- Virtual talk to Curious Science Writers, a group of high school students interested in science communication.
June:
- Virtual talk about Mars to San Antonio STEM Camp for kids.
May:
- Participated in WriteBoston's Pros&Conversations2021 talk about being a science journalist
April:
- Virtual q&a with children's author Kwame Alexander to Greene Scholars Program and talk about science journalism.
March:
- Moderated a conversation with Dr. Paula Lantz on "Covid-19 Reflections and Visions for the future"
- Virtual townhall "An Ounce of Prevention: Confronting Concerns about the Covid-19 Vaccine" for UMich Detroit Center
- Virtual talk to UMich Business School Students about race and health care.
The Craft of Science Journalism:
In this story, I let readers in on my research and writing process.
I am always looking for opportunities to share science stories through multimedia.
For The New York Times, I have filmed more than a dozen Facebook Live science videos. Several of those videos were shot aboard a research vessel 100 miles off the coast of Maine. There, I documented marine scientists as they ventured to the seafloor in the Alvin submersible. I have also helped craft scripts for The NYT's science video series, ScienceTake about brewing homemade explosive lava, and a cockroach's karate kick.
I also enjoy speaking with classrooms and other groups about being a science reporter and the craft of science writing. If you would like to have me virtually speak with your classroom or group, please send me an email at scifleur@gmail.com for more information.
Contact Me
I am currently considering reporting assignments to cover all kinds of scientific research, especially in the fields of archaeology, paleontology, and space. I am also always on the hunt for my next children's book.
Do you have a story pitch that you think I should cover? Send it my way! You can email me at scifleur@gmail.com or by submitting a message below:
Here I am with my first children's dinosaur book, my first cover story for the New York Times for Kids, and a bunch of dinosaur drawings I made when I was a lil' dino-lover!
Nicholas St. Fleur - Email me at scifleur@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @scifleur