Anne is a "Strange Quark"

Wow! I won the “strange quark” (2nd place) award in a science writing contest, hosted by Three Quarks Daily, for blogging about the Mississippi River, floods, levees, and the illusion of control.

As I wrote in the comments at 3QD:

Wow! I never thought I’d actually win something for writing about stuff for fun. Thank you to Dr. Lisa Randall for selecting me, the folks at Three Quarks Daily for hosting this contest and boosting me into the finals. I am deeply honored to be a winner of the 3 Quarks Daily contest, and incredibly impressed by the company I’m in.

The 1993 Mississippi River floods were the event that made me become the scientist I am today, so I really wanted to do a creditable job explaining the perspectives and nuances of flood management. Based on the response to the piece, I must have done OK! But now I’ve set myself the goal of bringing that same quality of writing to more blog posts and my scientific papers, so I may be in trouble if they don’t live up to the high praise that this post has gotten.

Thanks to my readers for supporting me in the contest and in blogging generally. Special thanks to my co-blogger Chris for giving me a place to write and for encouraging and supporting me every day.