Bijal P. Trivedi

Bijal is an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in long-form narrative features about biology, medicine, and health.

Her work has taken her from the Mexico-Guatemala border where she covered the use of genetically modified mosquitoes for fighting the dengue virus to the behind the scenes at Massachusetts General Hospital where she watched trauma surgeons test hypothermia to save pigs with life-threatening injuries to Moscow’s Star City where she blasted off with space tourism entrepreneurs on the “Vomit Comet” for astronaut training.

Bijal is the former senior science editor for National Geographic and former science editor for The Conversation. She also edited the NIH Director’s Blog and, prior to that, helped launch the National Geographic News Service in partnership with The New York Times Syndicate, which she wrote for and edited.​Her writing has been featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2012, National Geographic, Scientific American, Wired, Science, Nature, The Economist, Discover, New Scientist, and others.

Her fascination with biochemistry and molecular biology at Oberlin College compelled her to pursue a master’s degree in molecular/cell/developmental biology at UCLA. However, her love of writing drew her to journalism rather than to a lab bench—and to a second master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. She later taught in NYU's graduate Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program from 2007-2012.​ Bijal has lived in the UK and Australia, and is now based in Washington, DC, where she lives with her husband Chad, her kids, Dhruv and Sonali, and their legendary dog, Artoo.