Gabriel Popkin writes for the NIST website. Before coming to NIST, he was a freelance science and environmental journalist for more than 10 years, writing for globally recognized outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Science, National Geographic, Quanta and many others. He has served as president of the DC Science Writers and chair of the National Association of Science Writers' information access committee. He studied physics at Wesleyan University and science writing at Johns Hopkins University. Outside of work, he spends as much time as he can outdoors, hiking, biking, gardening, canoeing and playing in the NIST soccer and ultimate frisbee games.