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Stephanie M. Lee

Senior Writer

What I Cover

I write about scholars, scholarship, and society. I’m drawn to stories about researchers whose ideas are provoking debate inside and outside their disciplines. I am also interested in understanding how the knowledge-production ecosystem works — or, often, fails to work. That means I investigate issues like retractions, conflicts of interest, and misconduct, with the goal of holding institutions to account. There’s no subject I’m not curious about: My stories have spanned the fields of behavioral science, infectious diseases, food, art history, math education, and misinformation, among others.

My Background

I joined The Chronicle in 2022. I was previously a science and technology reporter at BuzzFeed News, and before that, a health reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. I was a recipient of the 2022 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, which honored my investigative reporting about scientific misconduct. My stories have been anthologized in The Best American Food Writing and noted in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. I frequently speak at conferences and in the press about topics like research integrity and scientific reproducibility.

I earned my bachelor’s degree in comparative literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where I got my start in journalism at The Daily Californian. I live in San Francisco.

Connect

I welcome reader feedback and story ideas at stephanie.lee@chronicle.com. For sensitive communications and tips, please don’t hesitate to message me at stephaniemlee@protonmail.com or on Signal at stephaniemlee.07.

I can also be found on Twitter, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Threads.

Recent Stories

'Arrogant Complacency'
By Stephanie M. Lee February 4, 2025
Charles Piller, author of the new book Doctored, says the scientific community needs “to take a good hard look in the mirror.”
Scholarship & Research
By Stephanie M. Lee January 23, 2025
Trump’s nominees have big plans for remaking the federal health agencies, with consequences for university scientists who receive billions in funding.
Scholarship & Research
By Stephanie M. Lee January 14, 2025
No need for a Ph.D.: At artificial intelligence’s biggest conference, high schoolers competed to present.
'I am an AI language model'
By Stephanie M. Lee December 18, 2024
Journals have policies about disclosing ChatGPT writing, but enforcing them is another matter, according to a new study.
Extremely online
By Stephanie M. Lee November 1, 2024
When a study challenged his bestselling book’s thesis — that social media harms kids — the New York University psychologist fired back. That was just the beginning.
Research Integrity
By Stephanie M. Lee September 24, 2024
A paper that shows how far the reproducibility movement has come may also show how far it has to go.
Research Integrity
By Stephanie M. Lee September 16, 2024
Pro and college athletes are wearing the Q-Collar to reduce their risk of brain injuries, but data sleuths have spotted anomalies and errors in key studies demonstrating its efficacy.
'An Important Decision'
By Stephanie M. Lee September 11, 2024
But the judge will allow part of Francesca Gino’s lawsuit against Harvard to proceed.
Hall of Mirrors
By Stephanie M. Lee August 21, 2024
ChatGPT is wreaking chaos in the field that birthed it.
Free-Speech Debate
By Stephanie M. Lee April 9, 2024
The senate will revisit its 2020 censure after a group of professors said the Hoover fellow wasn’t given due process.