Hi, I’m Olga Dobrovidova.

Hi, I’m Olga Dobrovidova.

I am a science and environment journalist, communicator and educator based in France. I have been writing about policy-relevant science, from climate change to vaccines, for over a decade.

I wear many hats:

  • Strategic scicomm for climate change research;
  • Designing and leading science writing and science communication courses and other educational products (ex-ITMO University, Tyumen State University School of Advanced Studies, and HSE in Moscow);
  • Vice President of the European Federation for Science Journalism (EFSJ)
  • Bylines in Nature, Science, MIT Technology Review, BBC, STAT, Undark, VTimes, Meduza, N+1, and others

A CV in English is available here.

Some of my recent stories:

  • Scientists in Russia struggle in a world transformed by its war in Ukraine [Science]
  • The Soviets turned the Volga River into a machine. Then the machine broke. [MIT Technology Review]
  • Calling embryo editing ‘premature,’ Russian authorities seek to ease fears of a scientist going rogue [STAT]

My full portfolio is available here. Please note I don’t currently cover climate change due to a conflict of interest.

I love instructional design and teaching at an undergraduate level and above.

In 2017-2023, I developed and taught the core discipline of multimedia science journalism for the Master in Science Communication graduate program at ITMO University. It was a two-semester course which includes a writing workshop and a team project in science media management.

Learn more here.

As a certified EMI teacher, I taught science communication as an English-language elective at the Tyumen State University School of Advanced Studies. In 2022, my course topped the school charts in “Best Assignments” and “Best Feedback.”

Learn more here.

I’m not currently looking for new instructional design projects, but I’ll be happy to suggest colleagues and/or provide consulting services.

I occasionally talk about Russian science and environmental policy to journalists and podcasters, focusing on the stories I follow closely or report myself. I am also fairly familiar with audio and video reporting as well as basic editing and post production. A few conversations I like are listed here.

Sputnik vs. the West: How the Russian government is discrediting Western vaccines [The Inoculation]
Sputnik V: International Success, Domestic Problems [The Russia File]
The Quest for a Coronavirus Vaccine [WHYY The Pulse]
Putin and the planet [BBC The Climate Question]
Setting up a permafrost observatory, and regulating transmissible vaccines [Science Podcast]

I also enjoy translating great things into Russian.

I’ve translated two books and two MOOCs so far as well as a lot of news and social media content.

I translated this MOOC into Russian and curated additional content for the Russian-language version.
Following up on the success of the first course, I also translated the second MOOC on COVID-19 vaccines.

To discuss new exciting projects in any of these fields, send me a message through the Contact page.

Oh, and I have a science journalism newsletter in English: