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I’m Alice Callahan. My passion is writing stories about science that are accessible, interesting, and informative — with a willingness to dive into the complex and an uncompromising commitment to getting the facts right.

I was trained as a scientist, with a PhD in Nutrition (UC Davis, 2008) and postdoctoral training in fetal physiology (University of Arizona). I left the lab bench in 2011 and have since been juggling some of my favorite things: writing, teaching, and parenting. I live in Eugene, Oregon, with my husband and two kids.

I’m the author of The Science of Mom: A Research-Based Guide to Your Baby’s First Year, published in 2015 by Johns Hopkins University Press, with a fully up-to-date second edition published in 2021. The book grew out of my popular blog about evidence-based parenting and was intensely researched but written for a lay audience. It was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition and praised as one of Science News’ favorite books of 2015.

My freelance health and science writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Undark, Knowable Magazine, FiveThirtyEight, Slate, Lifehacker, Everyday Health and Portland Monthly, among other outlets.