Mariette DiChristina

Mariette DiChristina (COM’86) is dean of Boston University’s College of Communication and professor of the practice in journalism, which was her major as a BU student at COM. Before arriving at BU in 2019, DiChristina was the first female editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American, as well as executive vice president, Magazines Division, of its publisher, Springer Nature. In that capacity, she also oversaw the journalists for the journal Nature’s magazine, as well as the Nature Research custom content and publishing groups.

An elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she serves on the advisory committee of Climate Crossroads for the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; on the executive board for WBUR; on the Practice and Science of Civic Science Advisory Committee for the Civic Science Fellows program; on the board of trustees for Society for Science, publisher of Science News; and on the board of The Rita Allen Foundation. For a decade, DiChristina also chaired the Steering Group for the annual “Top 10 Emerging Technologies” for the World Economic Forum.

Previously, DiChristina was president of the National Association of Science Writers, chair of Science Writers in New York, and executive editor of Popular Science. She also enjoyed working with students as a part-time adjunct associate professor and visiting scholar in the graduate Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and as a science writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Boston University recognized her work in 2016 with a Distinguished Alumni Award.