Kristel Tjandra is a science writer based in Virginia. Before pivoting her career into science journalism, she was a postdoctoral scholar in the emergency medicine department at Stanford. She has a doctorate in chemistry and a Bachelor’s degree in medicinal chemistry from the University of New South Wales, Australia. In 2024, she graduated from the science communication master’s program at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a David Nason Journalism Scholar.

Kristel specializes in writing about drugs and diseases. She is a regular contributor to Drug Discovery News and Alzforum. She also writes broadly about other scientific topics, including the intersection between science and humanities. Some of her writings have appeared in Science, Mongabay, Science News, Eos, and MIT Technology Review. She was an intern health reporter at KQED Radio, an NPR affiliate in San Francisco, and Live Science, an online daily news site.

In 2022, Kristel received the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Aside from her journalism training, she is a resident scholar at the STEM Advocacy Institute. She also volunteers with InterVarsity and the National Association of Science Writers.

You can read some of her articles on the ‘Writings’ page or follow her scientific work on the ‘Research’ page.

She’d be happy to connect via LinkedIn (/in/kristeltjandra/) or email at tjandra.kristel [at] gmail.com.