Elizabeth Landau | |
|---|---|
 Landau at the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program in 2018 | |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (BA) Columbia University (MA) |
| Employer | National Geographic |
| Known for | Science Communication |
| Website | lizlandau |
Elizabeth Rosa Landau is an American science writer and communicator. She is the Senior Editor for Animals at National Geographic . [1] She was a Senior Communications Specialist at NASA Headquarters [2] and a Senior Storyteller at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory previously.
Landau grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As a child, she watched Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos , which helped inspire her love of space. [3]
She earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology at Princeton University (magna cum laude) in 2006. As a Princeton student, she completed study-abroad programs at University of Seville and Universidad de León. [4] During her junior year in Princeton, she was the editor-in-chief of Innovation, the university's student science magazine. [3] In the summer of 2004, she became a production intern at CNN en Español in New York. [4] She earned a master's in journalism from Columbia University, where she focused on politics. [5]
Landau began to write and produce for CNN's website in 2007 as a Master's Fellow, and returned full-time in 2008. [6] Here she co-founded the CNN science blog, Light Years. [7] She covered a variety of topics including Pi Day. [8] [9] [10] In 2012, Landau interviewed Scott Maxwell about the Curiosity rover at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. [11]
In 2014, she became a media relations specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she led media strategy for Dawn (spacecraft), Voyager, Spitzer, NuSTAR, WISE, Planck and Hershel. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] She led NASA's effort to share the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system with the world on February 22, 2017. [18] [19] In January 2018, she was appointed a Senior Storyteller at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. [3] In February 2020, she became a Senior Communications Specialist at NASA Headquarters. [2] Collaborating with Kimberly Arcand at the Chandra X-ray Observatory, she directed the 2024 NASA+ documentary Listen to the Universe, which won several awards and distinctions from film festivals in the United States and abroad. [20] She was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2025. [21]
Landau has written for CNN, Marie Claire , New Scientist , Nautilus, Scientific American , Vice Media, The Wall Street Journal , The New York Times , Washington Post , and National Geographic . [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]
Landau has interviewed many prominent figures in science, such as geneticist James Watson for CNN in June 2013 [30] and astronomer Virginia Trimble for Quanta Magazine in November 2019. [31]