Award-winning science journalist Alison Richards is deputy supervising senior editor at National Public Radio and a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. She oversees the desk's daily output of science, environmental and technical stories and also edits Robert Krulwich. As a deputy head of the desk, she also plays a role in helping to manage health content. She has initiated and managed major series, including the year-long Climate Connections series with National Geographic, 2007-2008 and a 20-part series in 2010 on evolution: The Human Edge. She is currently helping to develop the desk's presence and identity on the Web. She was a winner of the 2009 National Academies Communication Award in the online category and shared the 2010 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for work challenging the official estimates of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with NPR science correspondent Richard Harris.

Richards is a strong advocate for the use of narrative journalism techniques in science reporting and for using a much greater variety of form and tone both on radio and the Web.

Before joining NPR in 1998, Richards worked many years for the British Broadcasting Corporation's radio science unit in London. She also prepared major exhibits on the physical sciences, ecology, Celtic and medieval archaeology and modern art and craft at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. She has co-authored several books, including A Passion for Science and Passionate Minds: The Inner World of Scientists, co-authored with Lewis Wolpert, as well as A Paradise Out of a Common Field and The New Book of Apples, co-authored with Joan Morgan.

Born in the United Kingdom, Richards has a degree in English language and literature from the University of Oxford. She lives in Washington, DC.