Venkataramanan received the award and its $1,000 prize for two stories in Wired (“My Identity for Sale” and “Welcome to BrainGate”) and one story for the BBC (“The Superpower Police Now Use to Tackle Crime.”)

The panel of judges cited Venkataramanan for her thorough and wide-ranging reporting, her ability to bring fresh and clever approaches to topics, and her compelling and memorable narratives.

Raised in India, Venkataramanan earned a B.A. in biology and an M.S. in clinical immunology from Oxford University. While a student, she worked as a correspondent for the Singapore-based magazine India Se and as an editor for The Oxford Student. She went on to get an M.A. from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) before landing a job as associate editor at Wired in the UK, where she had previously worked as an intern. In August, she left Wired to head up technology coverage at the Telegraph.

2015 Evert Clark / Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists
Madhumita Venkataramanan / Telegraph