For Immediate Release
Contact: Amy Couch, 202-238-9088, acouch@americanhumanist.org
2018 Humanist of the Year, Jennifer Ouellette
(Washington, D.C., March 29, 2018)–The American Humanist Association (AHA) is proud to announce Jennifer Ouellette as the 2018 Humanist of the Year. Jennifer Ouellette, who will be named Humanist of the Year at the AHA’s 77th Annual Conference, is a nationally recognized science writer and the author of several popular science books including: Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self (2014); The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse (2010); The Physics of the Buffyverse (2007); and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics (2006).
Ouellette is also a former science editor of Gizmodo, a popular technology/science daily news blog that garners over 35 million page views per month, and her freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Book Review, Discover, Slate, Salon, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, Alta, Nature, and New Scientist, among other venues.
From October 2012 to June 2015, Ouellette served as a co-host for Virtually Speaking Science, a weekly conversation with a prominent scientist or science writer hosted by the Exploratorium in Second Life and aired as a podcast by Blog Talk Radio. She makes frequent public appearances, including stints on National Public Radio, and an appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in February 2011. As a bonus, she was awarded one of the show’s coveted “Golden Harmonicas.” From November 2008 to October 2010, Ouellette was the founding director of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a Los Angeles-based initiative of the National Academy of Sciences aimed at fostering creative collaborations between scientists and entertainment industry professionals in Hollywood. She holds a black belt in jujitsu, and lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Caltech physicist Sean (M.) Carroll.
The American Humanist Association’s 77th Annual Conference will take place on May 17-20, 2018 at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Additional information about the conference can be here.