Finalist: Azeen Ghorayshi and Austin Mitchell of The New York Times

Azeen Ghorayshi is a science reporter for The New York Times who reports breaking news, feature stories and investigations on the intersection of sex, gender and science.

After a brief stint as a neuroscience researcher at her alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, Ms. Ghorayshi decided to pursue science journalism. Before coming to The Times, she worked at BuzzFeed News, where she was a reporter and editor on the science and investigation desks.

In 2023, her coverage of science and gender was recognized by the Newswomen’s Club of New York for best beat reporting. In 2020, she was part of a team whose investigation into big banks and financial corruption was a Pulitzer finalist. And in 2015, she was a Livingston Award finalist for her coverage of sexual harassment in elite university science departments.

She is based in New York and grew up in Southern California, where her parents immigrated from Iran.

Austin Mitchell is a supervising audio producer for The New York Times, based in New York. He works with reporters in the newsroom to help develop podcasts and other audio projects.

Mr. Mitchell has a particular interest in engaging with complicated subjects and finding ways to help listeners better understand them.

His latest role at The Times was as a senior producer on “The Daily,” where he helped create and produce spinoff projects like “The Latest” (covering President Trump’s first impeachment proceedings) and “The Field” (covering the 2020 Democratic primaries and the general election).

Before joining The Times in 2019, he produced narrative podcast series including “The Ballad of Billy Balls” and “The RFK Tapes.” He began his audio career at Gimlet Media, where he helped to produce podcasts like “Crimetown” and “Reply All.”

Mr. Mitchell has a degree in civil engineering from Columbia University.