The Atlantic Hires Katherine Wu as Staff Writer

Wu joins from The New York Times, and will cover the pandemic

As The Atlantic continues its work at the forefront of reporting on the coronavirus, editor in chief Jeffery Goldberg announced today that Katherine J. Wu has been hired as a staff writer covering the pandemic. Wu will join The Atlantic later this month from The New York Times, where she has reported on the science of COVID-19 along with the human fallout of the virus.

“Katie is joining the best pandemic team in journalism,” said Goldberg. “Across the past year, our science and health writers and editors have done historic work, and the addition of a brilliant reporter like Katie to this team is further proof of The Atlantic's commitment to covering this story.”

Prior to her work at the Times, Wu was a staff writer for NOVA Next, an early career fellow at the Open Notebook, and an AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Smithsonian Magazine. She is also a Story Collider senior producer, and was the 2020 winner of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists. In 2018, Wu earned a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunobiology from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, National Geographic, and Popular Science, among others.

The Atlantic’s coverage of the pandemic in the last year has been relentless and all-encompassing. Record numbers of readers have turned to The Atlantic for reporting and clarity on testing, vaccines, the government response, and how the pandemic is shaping every part of our lives. The Covid Tracking Project at The Atlantic, launched in the first days of March, continues to provide the public with the most complete testing and hospitalization data across the country. During the tumultuous year, The Atlantic has also been able to successfully convert new readers into subscribers, adding nearly 400,000 subscribers in 2020 alone.