Michael Tennesen is a science writer who has written for many of the top publications in the country, including more than 400 stories in such journals as Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, National Wildlife, Audubon, Science, Smithsonian, and others. He wrote Flight of the Falcon for Key Porter Books, was a co-author of The Medical Advisor for Time-Life Books, and wrote Global Warming for Alpha Books/Penguin Group.
*Tennesen is a Writer in Residence at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in New York,
*A Visiting Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC).
*And a Media Fellow at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.
He is currently working on the Next Species--a look at the evolutionary aftermath that will follow what scientists predict is the current mass extinction of species. What animals will replace the present order? Will a new hominid evolve? He's consulting with a number of scientists who are now in the field, trying to answer those questions.
Career History
After graduating from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), he began writing for Environmental Quality Magazine, a small but excellent publication based in California in the 1970s. While there, the late Senator Alan Cranston read one of his articles on the Southwest Deserts into the Congressional Record.
From here his career blossomed as he was given many international assignments for major publications specializing in what on editor referred to as adventure science. Tennesen toured the Andean cloud forests of Peru for Smithsonian and also the Chilean fog forests for Discover to learn how global warming threatens these precious trees. He traveled to Tikal, Guatemala, for Key Porter Books to study the forest and its birds of prey. He flew with pilots dropping water and chemicals on southern California fires for Smithsonian Air & Space. He visited with biologists off Maui and swam with the humpback whales for National Wildlife. He reported on the toxic explosion at a silicon plant in eastern Washington for Reader's Digest. He descended into limestone caves in Texas to learn how juniper is sucking the water out of the aquifers for Science. He fought a dust storm in New Mexico for Discover to learn how development is removing precious topsoil from our arid lands. And he investigated the murder of Vermont archeologist Jim Petersen in the Amazon, also for Discover.
When he isn't in the field on assignment or at his computer pounding out a story, he likes to roam the back roads of the Southwest and Baja deserts. Though he's spent a lot of time in the jungle, he thinks of himself as a "desert rat." He's also spent many pleasant moments dipping his fishing pole into the waters of the Sea of Cortez, attending art openings with his wife, and discussing politics with his late mother. He lives in the California Desert near Joshua Tree National Park with Maggie, his wife; China, his dog; and Swift, his tortoise.
Tennesen has also written on health and biomedicine for Discover, New Scientist, Men's Health, Prevention, Health, and others.
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