Ivan Oransky Named Editor-in-Chief of Spectrum
The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce Ivan Oransky as the next editor-in-chief of Spectrum. In the role, he will lead the editorially independent publication’s award-winning coverage of advances in autism research.
Oransky is an accomplished journalist, editor and educator. He previously served as vice president, editorial, at Medscape, a website dedicated to providing comprehensive clinical information and resources to physicians and other health care professionals. He is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, where he teaches medical journalism in the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Oransky also currently serves as president of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and he is a co-founder of Retraction Watch, which reports on scientific retractions.
He takes the helm of Spectrum from Apoorva Mandavilli, who launched the research news service in 2008, and who recently joined The New York Times as a health and science writer. Having served on the publication’s editorial advisory board since 2014, Oransky is already deeply familiar with Spectrum.
“I saw firsthand what a great staff and publication Apoorva had built,” says Oransky, “so I jumped at the chance to take Spectrum even further and drive deeper engagement with its readers.”
Oransky previously served as vice president and global editorial director of MedPage Today, executive editor of Reuters Health, online managing editor of Scientific American, deputy editor of The Scientist, and editor-in-chief of the Praxis Post.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University, where he was executive editor of The Harvard Crimson. He went on to get his M.D. at the New York University School of Medicine, where he holds an appointment as a clinical assistant professor of medicine. In 2015, he received the John P. McGovern Award for excellence in biomedical communication from the American Medical Writers Association.
