Jamie Morton, a specialist in science and environmental reporting for New Zealand's Herald, has spent the last decade writing about everything from conservation and cosmology to climate change and COVID-19.

I pursued a career in journalism from a young age, first studying media, then training under renowned tutor and journalist Jim Tucker in New Plymouth in 2004. After spending a year as a freelance writer for various Wellington newspapers, I joined the company in 2005, reporting on community newspapers in Hawke’s Bay. Following two years at the Wairarapa Times-Age, I had a year-long stint at the Bay of Plenty Times, covering health and local news. I arrived at the New Zealand Herald in 2011, first working as a Tauranga-based branch reporter who covered breaking news and major stories from Coromandel to Taupo. My introduction to science and environment reporting was covering the Rena disaster in 2011: hearing experts calmly communicate science to a public furiously demanding answers left a deep impression on me. I took over the science and environment round soon after: and have spent the last decade writing about everything from conservation and cosmology to climate change and Covid-19. Highlights have included covering two major volcanic eruptions (2012 and 2019); the Kaikoura Earthquake (2018); travelling to disaster zones in the US, China and Japan (2013); the UN climate conference in Paris (2015); the Square Kilometre Array telescope in Western Australia (2014); and camping in Antarctica (2016 and 2019). I’ve also contributed to two books and won several major awards for my reporting: including science reporter of the year in 2013, 2016, and 2022. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve been heavily focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, while raising a young family in my native Taranaki.