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Mariette DiChristina

Dean and Professor of the Practice in Journalism, College of Communication, Boston University

Mariette DiChristina is dean of Boston University’s College of Communication and professor of the practice in journalism. Before arriving at BU in 2019, DiChristina was the first female editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American, as well as executive vice president, Magazines Division, of its publisher, Springer Nature. In that capacity, she also oversaw the journalists for the journal Nature’s magazine, as well as the Nature Research custom content and publishing groups.

An elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she serves on the advisory committee of Climate Crossroads for the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; the Academies’ Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication Research and Practice; on the National Academy of Engineering Editorial Board; on the executive board for WBUR; on the Practice and Science of Civic Science Advisory Committee for the Civic Science Fellows program; and the board of trustees for Society for Science, publisher of Science News. For the past several years, DiChristina has also chaired the Steering Group for the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies” for the World Economic Forum.

Previously, DiChristina was president of the National Association of Science Writers and executive editor of Popular Science. She also enjoyed working with students as a part-time associate professor and visiting scholar in the graduate Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University and as a science writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Experience

  • –present
    Dean and Professor of the Practice in Journalism, College of Communication, Boston University

Education

  • 1986 
    Boston University, BS, Journalism