莎朗·贝格利

莎朗·贝格利（Sharon Begley，1956年6月14日—2021年1月16日）是一名美国记者、科普作家以及Stat撰稿人。

个人生活

1977年，莎朗·贝格利毕业于耶鲁大学，获得综合科学文学学士学位。 莎朗·贝格利于1983年与Edward Groth结婚，育有一女一子。2021年1月16日，莎朗·贝格利因肺癌去世。

Sharon Begley (June 14, 1956 – January 16, 2021) was an American journalist who was the senior science writer for Stat, a publication from The Boston Globe that covers stories related to the life sciences. She regularly contributed articles to the Yale Scientific Magazine while at University. She published recurring columns and feature articles in several mainstream publications on a wide variety of scientific topics. Begley was also an author and spoke at professional and community organizations. Her topics included the neuroplasticity of the brain, issues affecting science journalism, and education. She appeared on radio and television to discuss topics covered in her articles and books. Begley attracted both praise and criticism as a writer.

Early life

Begley was born Sharon Lynn Begley, on June 14, 1956, in Englewood, New Jersey, to Shirley (née Wintner) and John J. Begley Jr. Her father was a stockbroker while her mother was a homemaker. She grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she graduated from high school as a valedictorian. She graduated from Yale University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in combined sciences.

Career

Begley started her career as a journalist during her undergraduate studies, where she was a contributing reporter for Yale Scientific Magazine. She began work with Newsweek upon graduation in 1977, and by October 1984 she had already been named as a recipient of the Newspaper Guild of New York's Page One Award in the category of science reporting in magazines for the Newsweek article "How the Brain Works".

Begley's tenure with Newsweek established her as a well-known science communicator. She received accolades from the Religion Communicators Council for the 1998 article "Science Finds God". Her 2002 article "The Mystery of Schizophrenia" received honors from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Other awards have cited her clarity of communication and the accessibility of her articles in furthering the public's understanding of science.

In March 2002, after 25 years at Newsweek, Begley joined The Wall Street Journal to write its weekly science column called Science Journal. Only three months later, "So Much for Destiny: Even Thoughts Can Turn Genes 'On' and 'Off", earned Begley a Front Page Award for Best Column/Editorial from the Newswomen's Club of New York. More awards followed for her reporting on a wide variety of topics related to scientific research, including an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from the University of North Carolina.

In 2007, Begley returned to writing an award-winning science column at Newsweek. In 2010 Newsweek formed an alliance with The Daily Beast, and Begley's byline often appeared on this site as well. From 2012 until 2015 she worked as senior health and science editor at Reuters.

In August 2015, the first article appeared under the masthead of the Boston Globe's new science publication Stat with Begley as a member of the inaugural staff.

On November 7, 2025, Stat posthumously published a text by Begley, a critical obituary for James Watson she had prewritten before her own death.

Books

In 2002 the book The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, Begley and Jeffrey M. Schwartz explained the results of Schwartz's research into the origin and treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. Here, Schwartz explores the subject of the neuroplasticity of the brain and expands upon the idea of "brain lock", a term he introduced in his 1997 book Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior.