Katie L. Burke is an award-winning features editor and science journalist. She is senior contributing editor at American Scientist.

Illustration by Julia Bollinger

Selected Writing

  • 2019 Editor's Letter for Special Issue

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  • Fixing Broken Biological Clocks

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  • The Giant Tadpole That Never Got Its Legs

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  • Scientists in the Wake of the Hurricanes

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  • What Might Happen to COVID-19 Over Time?

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  • Flint Water Crisis Yields Hard Lessons in Science and Ethics

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  • Ancient Fire Scars of the Petrified Forest

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  • A rare 18th century book containing nature prints is displayed at the Herbaruim library at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London

    Book Review: The Hidden Extinction Crisis of Natural Historians

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  • A headshot of aerosol engineer Linsey Marr

    Changing Policies on COVID-19 Transmission (2023 Apex Award winner)

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Selected Editing

  • Female wood duck leaves nest box

    Putting Eggs in Many Baskets (American Scientist's First Digital Feature, EXCEL and Apex Awards winner)

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  • John James Audubon produced this lithograph of a female mountain lion and her cub in the 1840s after an expedition to the Missouri River.

    America's Cat Is on the Comeback (EXCEL Award-winning feature)

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  • This 1926 public health campaign poster, titled “Namo Great Buddha Policeman,” was distributed by the Japanese colonial government. It shows a policeman holding prayer beads in his left hand and a sword in his right.

    The History of Vaccine Uptake in Taiwan (Popular Article of 2022)

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  • This 1736 painting by Carle van Loo, Bear Hunt, uses violent and warlike imagery to depict attitudes toward large predators at the time.

    A Landscape of Fear of Humans (Popular Article of 2022)

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  • engineers from the StEER (Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance) Network assess damage from Hurricane Dorian.

    A New System for Disaster Research

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  • The Sun sets over rice paddies and the embankment that separates local farms from the Kapotaksma River in Bangladesh. Nearly two-thirds of the country’s area is less than five meters above sea level.

    A Delta in Peril

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Editing Services

Developmental editing & writing coaching for science content:

  • Six-month book coaching package to crank out that book

  • Writing coaching to produce a feature or personal essay aimed at getting a big byline

  • Developmental editing for books, features, op-eds, and news stories

Meet with Katie

15-Minute Discovery Call — Free

Let’s meet, discuss your needs and my editorial process, and decide how to proceed.

50-Minute Writing Coaching — $125

Please set up a 15-minute call with me first before booking writing coaching. Before the call, I will ask you to send a copy of the manuscript, outline, book proposal, or story plan you are working on.